The Hindu : Sport : Indians dominate in badminton

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 17, 2006

Sport

Sport

Indians dominate in badminton

S.R. Suryanarayan

Another draw, 1-1 effort against Nepal, in football

COLOMBO: Even though the South Asian Games formally gets underway only on Friday, competitions in a couple of disciplines have already begun. Football began two days ago and on Wednesday the Sugathadasa indoor stadium witnessed the start of badminton.

India expectedly showed its domination in the shuttle event where at the end of the first day's programme two Indians — defending champion Chetan Anand and Nikhil Kanetkar — are well on their way to reach the men's individual title round. Both have opponents from Pakistan to face in the semifinal round on Thursday.

In better touch

The second-seeded Nikhil looked in better touch than Chetan and that showed in his 21-6, 21-7 win over Bangladesh's Abdul Hannan for a semifinal entry. Nikhil had a bye in the first round in the draw of 16.

Chetan, ranked 24 in the world, took time to settle after what he said was some stiffness in his limbs. After a bye in the first round, Chetan struggled even dropping a game before getting past Parash Md Ahsun Habib of Bangladesh.

"A touch of hamstring strain affected my movement initially," said Chetan on his below par show but after the 21-13, 20-22, 21-7 he felt he had adjusted well to the conditions.

In the women's section, top seed Trupti Murugunde of India will face Sri Lanka's Renu Chandrika de Silva in the semifinal after her 21-5, 21-11 win over Neela Najeeb of Maldives in the last eight. Also progressing to the semifinal was the second-seeded B.R. Meenakshi who made short work of Asma Butt of Pakistan 21-10, 21-19.

In football, India played out another draw, a 1-1 effort against Nepal. Considering India is essentially an under-20 side the result was encouraging but with its second draw (India had drawn against Afghanistan earlier) its chances for the next phase are getting dimmer. After a goalless first half, India went ahead in the 62nd minute through Soshil Kumar Singh. But 14 minutes later Santosh Shaukhala found the equaliser via a penalty. Overall it was a scrappy match.

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