Four U-19 shuttlers found to be over 20

BENGALURU: The

Badminton Association of India

on Thursday cracked the whip on eight junior shuttlers who were found overage in the ongoing All India Junior Ranking Tournament in Jodhpur, issuing a stern warning that they would henceforth have to compete only in categories in which they are eligible.

The age verification tests on five players were conducted at a government hospital in Jodhpur on Tuesday and Wednesday, while in the case of five other players, documents relating to age tests conducted in 2014 in Rohtak and Cuttack respectively, were scrutinized.

The tests were conducted under the supervision of a BAI officer with chief junior coach Sanjay Mishra picking the players at random. Shockingly, four shuttlers who were tested this week -Bihar's Rohit Kumar and

Ankit Kumar

, Uttar Pradesh's Piyush Kumar and Tamil Nadu's

Kevin Arokia Walter

- as listed in an official BAI document in TOI's possession, were found to be over 20 years while competing in the U-19 category.