India assured of historic medal at BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships

Guwahati, Oct 9 (PTI) India beat Korea to reach semifinals and assure themselves of a maiden medal at the World Junior Mixed Team Badminton Championships here on Thursday.

The hosts won 44-45, 45-30, 45-33 in a nerve-wracking quarterfinal clash that lasted almost three hours as the semi-final appearance assured India of their first-ever mixed-team medal in the history of BWF World Junior Championships.

The Indian shuttlers will face Asian U-19 mixed team champions Indonesia in the semifinals.

Indonesia defeated Chinese Taipei 45-35, 45-35 in another quarterfinal match at the National Centre of Excellence here.

The way India had lined-up for the quarterfinals, it was quite clear that they were heavily relying on their singles players to bail them out in case the Koreans made the most of their doubles strength.

The first set went accordingly as Bhargav Ram Arigela and Viswa Tej Gobburu went down 5-9 in the first boys doubles against Cho Hyeong Woo and Lee Hyeong Woo.

The Indian girls doubles combination of Vennala K and Reshika U managed to reduce the deficit by one point by beating Cheon Hye In and Moon In Seo 10-9, before Rounak Chouhan brought them within one point by defeating Choi Ah Seung 11-9.

However, a 4-9 loss for C Lalramsanga and Aanya Bisht in the mixed doubles against Lee and Cheon meant that Unnati Hooda had to win 15 points before her opponent Kim Han Bi could reach nine.

Unnati began strong by taking a 3-0 lead, but Kim managed to draw level at 6-6.

It looked like the set was slipping from India’s hand. But Unnati dug deep and played long rallies to win five straight points to build pressure on her opponent, and went on to draw level at 44-44. However, her serve on set point landed in the net and a distraught Unnati just dropped her racquet in despair.

India made two substitutions ahead of the second set with Lalramsanga replacing Gobburu in boys doubles and Vishakha Toppo coming in for Bisht.

Lalramsanga and Bhargav then gave India a 9-7 win over Cho and Lee, and Vennala and Reshika extended that advantage to six points. India never looked back thereafter and by the time Unnati took the court for the second set, they were already leading by nine points and all she had to do was wrap up the set.

The third set started in the same manner as Lalramsanga and Bhargav gave India a 9-4 lead. But Vennala and Reshika ran out of steam after the first 10 points and the Korean combination of Cheon and Moon put their team ahead by two points.

Chouhan stepped up and turned the match decisively in India’s favour with a 11-4 win over Choi to give India a five point lead. Lalramsanga and Bisht then increased that lead to seven points and Unnati then hammered Kim 9-4 to kick-off the celebrations. PTI PDS PDS DDV