Indians win two gold at Asian Youth Badminton Championship

Siril Varma at the top of the podium during the medal ceremony (picture courtesy: BAI, Artsmith Concept)

Kudus (Indonesia), Oct 13 (IANS) Indian shuttlers achieved their best ever performance at the Asian Youth (U-15 and U-17) Badminton Championship by winning two gold medals here Sunday.

Siril Varma, 14, defeated local Putra Gatja 21-11, 21-17 in the boys U-15 singles final.

In the U-17 doubles combination, top seeded M.R. Arjun and Chirag Shetty worsted Thais Mak Narongrit and Kantaphon Wangcharoen 21-16, 21-15 to clinch the title.

The two titles took India’s medals tally to two gold and two bronze medals.

Bangalore’s Daniel Farid (Boys U-17 singles) and Krishna Prasad/Shreya Bose (U-15 mixed doubles) finished with two bronzes after losing their respective semi-finals Saturday.

“I congratulate all the medal winners and I am extremely proud to say that India is fast emerging as a new power in world badminton in all age groups,” Badminton Association of India president Akhilesh Das Gupta said.

“The BAI has invested and is tirelessly working in junior and sub-junior programmes for the last two years and now the results have started to come,” he said.

Prior to this performance last year, India won two bronze medals in China in boys U-15 singles and doubles events. World Championship bronze medallist P.V. Sindhu had bagged the U-19 girls singles title last year.