The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : Railways, Kerala crowned champions

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Thursday, Jan 13, 2005

Sport

Sport - Badminton

Railways, Kerala crowned champions

By Our Sports Reporter

HYDERABAD, JAN. 12. Railways men and Kerala women emerged the champions in the 50th Senior National ball badminton championship at Railway Grounds here on Wednesday.

Railways got the better of Hyderabad 29-17, 29-24 in the final, thanks to the excellent coordination amongst Anand Kumar at the back, Anbazahan and Sashikumar in the front.

On the other hand, for Hyderabad, the weak link was Masan Khan, who struggled in the face of some accurate, smashing returns from Anbazahan. Hyderabad, which shocked defending champion Tamil Nadu in the semifinals in the morning, never really lived up to the expectations despite being lustily cheered by a goodly crowd.

What clearly cost the home team was the lack of collective effort from even seasoned campaigners like Sriranganath in the centre and Mahedeva Rao in the back. Even the normally efficient Ramana was off-colour for most of the game.

Karnataka defeated Tamil Nadu 29-24, 29-25 to clinch the third place.

In the women's final, Kerala retained the title with a 29-19, 29-15 win against Karnataka in a repeat of last year's edition. Captain Smitha led from the front with perfect placements of her returns to the deep corners. She was given good support from back Deepa and centre Sandhya.

The results:

Men: Final: Railways bt Hyderabad 29-17, 29-24; Third place: Karnataka bt TN 29-24, 29-25; Semifinals: Hyderabad bt TN 21-29, 29-28, 29-11; Railways bt Karnataka 29-25, 29-11.

Women: Final: Kerala bt Karnataka 29-19, 29-15; Third place: TN bt Maharashtra 29-22, 29-18; Semifinals: Kerala bt Maharahstra 29-14, 29-15; Karnataka bt TN 18-29, 29-26, 29-22.

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