City shuttler claims gold, silver in national event

THANE: City-based 18-year-old shuttler Vighnesh Devlekar won a gold medal in the under-19 boys’ doubles and silver in mixed doubles at the all India Junior Ranking Badminton tournament in Andhra Pradesh.
Devlekar paired with Sanyam Shukla in the doubles and thrashed top seeded Rohan Kapoor and Saurabh Verma 21-15, 21-13 to win gold. In the mixed doubles, he teamed up with Sanjana Santosh and won silver against the champion duo of Utkarsh Arora and Karishma Wadkar at 16-21, 19-21.
“It was a good run at the nationals. After winning the gold in doubles, we trailed narrowly in the mixed doubles final to a visibly strong pair that pushed us to the second spot,” said Devlekar. -- B B Nayak