New Delhi: The Indian Badminton team finished sixth in the recently concluded BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships held in Yogjakarta, Indonesia. The Indian shuttlers put up a valiant fight but could not overcome the second seeded Indonesia, losing 1-3 to finish sixth in the campaign.
Earlier, despite remaining unbeaten in the group stages, India could not maintain their winning streak as they lost against Malaysia in the quarter-finals, before going down to hosts Indonesia in the 5th-6th place-off match.
However, despite finishing sixth among the total 45 competitors, India bettered it’s performance of 2015 where they finished eighth. The country’s best finish in the competition came in 2008 where the Indian team managed to finish fourth, followed by a similar sixth place finish in 2011.
Playing to salvage some lost pride, the Indian contingent could not get a desired start as the mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapil and Rutuparna Panda were completely outclassed by Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti and Rinov Rivaldy 21-11, 21-6 in a match that lasted for just 28 minutes.
World number 18 Karthikey Gulshan Kumar who had to replace the outgoing Second ranked Laqshya Sen, who is yet to recover from a ankle strain in the men’s singles, put up a strong resilient against Ikshan Leonardo Rumbay but did not stand any chance against the world number 10 going down down 16-21, 20-22 in straight sets.
The doubles pair of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Dhruv Kapila beat Muhammad Sohibul Fikri and Adnan Maulana 24-22, 23-21 to keep India’s hopes alive of a fifth place finish.
But it was all over, when Aakarshi Kashyap lost out to Gregoria Tunjung 22-24, 21-23 to end India’s campaign in the tournament.
“It was a good performance overall by the team. I am satisfied with the way the players have performed. Ofcourse, the results could have been much better but I think overall if you look at, we have lot of positives to take from this outing,” said a proud coach Sanjay Mishra.