The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : Antony is champion

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 16, 2004

Sport

Sport - Badminton

Antony is champion

KOCHI, SEPT. 15. Without the State's big stars and with a weary opponent facing him across the net, Antony K. Jacob raced to the men's singles title in the 11th Kochi Refineries Open all-Kerala badminton tournament, which concluded at the KRL auditorium, Ambalamugal, on Wednesday.

Just 30 minutes after slogging for the under-19 boys' title, Shankar P. Gopan faced his Regional Sports Centre club-mate Antony in the men's final.

And the youngster, normally fleet-footed, appeared heavy and slow. He could not cover the corners as quickly as he used to. In the end, Antony won rather comfortably.

Earlier, in the junior final, Shankar faced strong and unexpected resistance from the very promising Dileep T. Jacob.

Shankar lost the first game but in the close decider, he managed to win the crucial points with some high returns to the backcourt, which caught Dileep napping. Dileep had won the under-16 title on Tuesday.

S. Kasturi, DGM, Kochi Refineries, gave away the prizes.

The results (finals):

Men: Singles: Antony K. Jacob (RSC) bt Shankar P. Gopan (RSC) 15-7, 15-4. Doubles: K.A. Anish/C.M. Junith (RSC) bt Antony K. Jacob/P.A. Alfred (RSC) 15-6, 13-15, 15-4.

Boys: Under-19 (singles): Shankar P. Gopan (RSC) bt Dileep T. Jacob (RSC) 9-15, 15-4, 15-12. Doubles: Alwin Francis/P.V. Binoy (Tsr) bt Shankar Gopan/Dileep T. Jacob (RSC) 15-0, 15-5. Under-16 (doubles): Vinod Shankar/Dileep T. Jacob (RSC) bt Pradeep Jayakumar/Arjun Nair (RSC) 15-11, 15-3. — Our Principal Correspondent

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