Indian junior badminton player Shankar Muthusamy created history as he became just the second person in the country to enter the final of the BWF World Junior Championships.
He got the better of Indonesian Panitchaphon Teeraratsakul in the semi-final game that lasted about 40 minutes as the Indian sailed to victory in straight sets 21-13, 21-15.
He joins an esteemed company with the feat as he follows the footprints of one of the nation’s most celebrated shuttlers, Saina Nehwal, who reached the gold medal match in the tournament in the year 2008. Nehwal went on to win the yellow metal at the event.
A post shared by Badminton Association of India (@bai_media)
He also becomes the tenth Indian to seal a medal at the Junior World Championships following Lakshya Sen’s bronze in the 2018 edition of the event.
The opening game was an evenly balanced one until the break with the Indian holding a three-point advantage. However, Shankar came back vitalised after the interval and ripped into the Indonesian with his powerful jump smashes to wrap up the set in 16 minutes and establish a lead.
In the second set, however, which lasted for 24 minutes, Teeraratsakul pushed the Indian southpaw to work harder. The encounter witnessed a hotly contested point in a rally that tallied to 57 strokes before the shuttle dropped and touched the ground.
In the second game too, the Indian entered the interval with the upper hand. But, he took a hard fall in pursuit of a point but came back strong to pull six points ahead with the score at 18-12.
Sankar got the beating of Hu Zhen An of China 21-18, 8-21, 21-16 in the quarter-final to set up his clash against Teeraratsakul and confirm a medal.
The current edition of the prestigious event, in which India has earned 9 medals previously including Saina’s gold to go with the three silver and five bronze medals, is being held in Spain.
Sankar will hope to emulate Nehwal and clinch the gold medal in the final of the event.
What's your reaction?
Comments
0 comment