The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : Rohan , Ashwini win

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 17, 2005

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Sport - Badminton

Rohan , Ashwini win

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: Rohan Castelino kept his men's title while the 15-year-old Ashwini Ponnappa, weathered a stiff challenge from Ruth Misha and claimed her maiden women's singles title in the State badminton championship which concluded at the KBA Stadium her eon Tuesday.

Castelino's systematically took apart his rival, Utsav's Prakash's challenge in 45 minutes and won at 15-7, 15-9. He set a hot pace for Utsav in the first game and raced to a 5-1 lead and kept his relentless charge with series s of strong half smashes.

But Utsav did well to forge ahead in the second game, as he slowed down the pace and had Rohan in a bit of spot. But leading 8-4, Utsav began making unforced errors, letting his rival off the hook. Rohan battled back and levelled with a neat drop at 9-all and went up 10-9 with a smash. The pressure now was on Utsav, who began netting his shots and slumped to 9-13 deficit and ultimately tumbled to defeat with a weak push to net.

Absorbing battle

Ashwini Ponanppa and Ruth Misha waged an absorbing battle, which the former won at 11-6, 7-11,11-9. It was Ashwini, who looked a better player on the day with her strong attacking style and quick footwork. Ruth, who had earlier won the girls' under-19 title on Monday, sparkled in patches.

Ajit Wijetilak and Jose Geroge bagged the men's doubles title with a 15-7,15-5 win over Vineet Manuel and D. Guru Prasad.

Kishore Chandra, Addl. Commissioner of Police, presided and gave away the prizes.

The resuls (all finals):

Men's singles: Rohan Castelino bt Utsav Prakash 15-7, 15-9. Doubles: Ajit Wijetilak & Jose George bt Vineet Manuel & D. Guru Prasad 15-7, 15-5.

Women's singles: Ashwini Ponnappa bt V. Ruth Misha 11-6, 7-11, 11-9.

Veteran's singles: Jairam Pai bt Ashok Raman 15-6, 11-15, 15-6. Doubles: Ramakrishna & K.P. Vasanth Kumar bt Vinay Siddaraj & S. Ravikanth 7-15, 17-16, 17-14.

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