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The 2023 Badminton Asia Junior Championships have drawn to a close after nine days of intense action at Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The tournament gave the audience some dazzling performances and nail-biting matches.
For the Indian contingent, the Asia Junior Championships began with the selection trials held in Delhi from June 4-7, 2023. Post this, the 18-member team went through a rigorous 14-day training camp at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium in Panchkula, Haryana. While Ayush Shetty lead the team for the boy's singles events, Tara Shah was the flag bearer for the girl's singles.
The Indian team was placed in Group C alongside Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Hong Kong for their group-stage matches. The young guns had a strong start at the Asia Junior Championships as they demolished Bangladesh 5-0 without dropping a single game. They repeated this feat against Hong Kong the next day. The team was unable to keep the momentum going for their draw against Malaysia but qualified for the quarter-finals despite this.
India squared off against the home team Indonesia. The Indonesian got off to a strong start, winning the first two matches. Next up that day was girl's singles player Rakshitha Sree. For India to continue their team campaign in the Asia Junior Championships it was crucial for Rakshitha to convert her match. The rising star proved her mettle as she won the match 21-18, 10-21, 23-21.
Unfortunately, the boy's doubles pair was unable to keep the streak alive and India lost out to crowd favorites Indonesia.
India at the Asia Junior Championships individual events
Onto the individual events, the Indian contingent once again saw a strong start as all but one boy's singles player made it to the round of 32. Unluckily, despite putting up some strong fights the boy's singles, boy's doubles, and mixed doubles pair ended their tournament here. Girl's singles players Rakshitha Sree and Tara Shah, and girl's doubles pair Karnika and Taneesha made it to the pre-quarterfinals.
Once again luck did not side with the Indian team, and this is where the medal hope ended for India. While Rakshitha and Tara lost out in straight sets to their Chinese opponents, Taneesha and Karnika took it all the way to the decider before conceding defeat.
While fans and well-wishers are disappointed that the Indian contingent was unable to add a medal to the collection, there are still plenty of positive takeaways for the young guns from the Asia Junior Championships. All the players displayed some great performances and it is certainly an exciting prospect to see them play and dominate the court in upcoming tournaments!
