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South Asian Games 2019 action carried on as the initial days of the multi-sporting event saw seven nations compete for top honours in the cities of Kathmandu and Pokhara in Nepal.
After a slow start on the medal tally for the Indian contingent until Day 2 that saw them gather just three gold medals, the Indian contingent picked up their pace on Day 3. Across multiple sporting disciplines such as Taekwondo, Volleyball, Wushu, Athletics, Shooting etc, the Indian athletes managed to add 12 more gold medals to India's medal tally at the South Asian Games 2019.
One of the sport that was a contributor with two gold medals for the Indian nation was badminton. Both the Indian men and women emerged triumphant in their final matches finishing on the top podium position repeating their feat from the 2016 South Asian Games held in Guwahati / Shillong, India.
With the end of the team events, the Indian shuttlers will brace themselves for the Quarterfinals rounds of the Individual and Doubles events for both the men and women.
Day 3 of the badminton action saw the preliminary round action in Men's Singles, Men's Doubles, Women's Singles, Women's Doubles and Mixed Doubles as the finale eight participants went through to the quarterfinals to be played on the fourth day.
Indian women's doubles pairing of Kuhoo Garg and Anoushka Parikh made their way to the quarterfinals when they defeated the Bhutanese pair of Samjhana Gurung and Phuntsho Choden Thingh. Meghana Jakkampudi and S. Nelakurthi were the second Indian pair who qualified for the quarters winning their preliminary round beating out the Maldivian duo of Neela Ahmed Najeeb and Maisa Fathuhulla Ismail.
In the Men's Doubles category, the young pairing of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Dhruv Kapila made it to the quarters when they triumphed over Bangladeshi shuttlers Shuvo Khandaker and Tushar Krishna Roy.
Youngsters like Gayathri Gopichand and Aryaman Tandon were the other qualifiers in the Women's Singles and Men's Singles making their mark into the quarterfinal round.
India's Badminton Schedule at the South Asian Games 2019
4th Dec 2019
Quarterfinals - Men's Singles, Women's Singles, Men's Doubles, Women's Doubles, Mixed Doubles
5th Dec 2019
Semifinals - Men's Singles, Women's Singles, Men's Doubles, Women's Doubles, Mixed Doubles
6th Dec 2019
Finals - Men's Singles, Women's Singles, Men's Doubles, Women's Doubles, Mixed Doubles
Indian Badminton Squad for the South Asian Games 2019
Men - Lakshya Sen, Sourabh Verma, Siril Verma, Siddharth Pratap Singh, Krishna Prasad Garaga, Dhruv Kapila, Aryaman Tandon
Women - Gayathri Pullela Gopichand, Sai Uttejitha Rao Chukka, Meghana Jakkampudi, Kuhoo Garg, Aakarshi Kashyap, Anoushka Parikh, Shriyanshi Pradeshi, S. Nelakurthi
