Badminton Asia Junior Championships 2022: Unnati, Anish and doubles pair Arsh/Sanskar finish with silver

Indias Anish Thoppani and Gnana Dattu on the podium in Badminton Asia Junior Championships 2022 (Image Courtesy: Badminton Association of Thailand) — India's Anish Thoppani and Gnana Dattu on the podium in Badminton Asia Junior Championships 2022 (Image Courtesy: Badminton Association of Thailand)

New Delhi, December 4, 2022: India's rising women's shuttler Unnati Hooda, men's doubles pair Arsh Mohammad-Sanskar Saraswat and U-15 men's singles shuttler Anish Thoppani settled for silver medals at Badminton Asia Junior Championships 2022 in Nonthaburi, Thailand on Sunday (December 4).

Unnati, who had becomes the first Indian girls singles shuttler to reach the U-17 women's final, went down fighting against Sarunrak Vitidsarn of Thailand,

Meanwhile, Anish fell short against Chinese Taipei's Chung-Hsiang Yih in the men's final and, the pair of Arsh/Sanskar lost to Lai Po-Yu/Yi-Hao Lin pair of Chinese Taipei in the doubles finals.

All three Indian finalists were a game down and won second game to take their respective matches to the deciding game, but failed to convert the third and clinch the tie.

After losing first game 18-21, Unnati dominated next game 21-9. The third was neck to neck till 14-14 before the Thai raced to victory, clinching the decider 21-14. The match ended in the Thai's favour 21-18, 9-21, 21-14.

Meanwhile, Anish was little off-beat at the start and his opponent from Chinese Taipei took full advantage of that to win the first game 21-8.

Anish, however, regrouped in the second game to force a decider. He was always seen calming himself despite tense situations and that yielded result as he pocketed the tougher second game 24-22.

The decider was a close affair but errors on crucial points hurt the Indians chances as he went down 21-19 in the final game.

Earlier on Saturday (December 3), men's singles shuttler Gnana Dattu and men's doubles pair Bjorn Jaison and Aathish Sreenivas P. V. had secured bronze medals in U-15 category after losing their respective semifinal matches.

Dattu lost to Yih of Chinese Taipei 21-16, 19-21, 21-13, while Jaison and Sreenivas PV impressive run was cut short by the top-seeded Indonesian pair of Muhammad Mubarrok and Raihan Pramono with a 18-21, 14-21 win.

Source: BAI Release