3 city shuttlers selected for badminton championship

Our Sports Correspondent

Ludhiana, November 24

Three shuttlers from the city have been selected to represent Punjab in the Sub-Junior National Badminton Championship, scheduled to be held at Tenali in Vijayawada district of Andhra Pradesh, from December 2 to 6.

According to a communique received from the general secretary, Punjab Badminton Association, Rajinder Kalsi, “Three players from Ludhiana — Lakshay Sharma, Arnam Jain and Arunima Pal — have been selected for the upcoming championship.”

He said, “They have found place in the Punjab contingent on the basis of their performance in Sub Junior Punjab State Badminton Tournament held in Ludhiana recently.”

Lakshay emerged winner in the boys’ singles U-13 category while Arnam reached semifinals in the U-15 group and Arunima paired with Mahnoor Kaur from Mohali to secure second position in the girls’ doubles category in the Sub Junior Punjab State Badminton Tournament.

Lakshay Sharma currently is ninth seed in singles and second seed in doubles category at the national level rankings. Arnam Jain, trainee of an NIS qualified coach, Mangat Rai Sharma, practices at Nirvana Club while Arunima Pal is a trainee of coach Sandeep Kumar at the Ludhiana Badminton Academy run at Shastri Hall.

The names of selected players in the boys’ category include, Lakshay Sharma and Arnam Jain from Ludhiana, Akarshit Sharma of Gurdaspur, Shikhar Rlhan of Patiala, Adhyan Kakkar and Garv Chawla of Amritsar, Abhinav Thakur and Ankit Soni of Jalandhar.

The girls’ team includes Radhika Sharma of Hoshiarpur, Mahnoor Kaur of Mohali, Arunima Pal of Ludhiana, Khushman Bindra of Jalandhar, Savreet Kaur of Ferozepur and Agrima Rishi of Sangrur.

Neeraj Bansal and Harjinder Singh, both from Jalandhar, will accompany the team as manager and coach, respectively. The team will depart for Vijayawada on November 29.