Telangana’s Rashmee Rathore clinches silver at 36th National Games

Telangana shot gun shooter Rashmee Rathore clinched silver in the on-going 36th National Games held at the Crown Shooting Academy Gandhinagar

Hyderabad: Telangana shot gun shooter Rashmee Rathore clinched silver in the on-going 36th National Games held at the Crown Shooting Academy Gandhinagar, Gujarat on Sunday. The 39-year shooter from Hyderabad scored 25 points in the final round while Punjab’s Ganemat Sekhon clinched gold with 28 points. Shivani Raikwar (17) of Madhya Pradesh settled for bronze.

Top seeds Telangana had to dig their heels in to edge out Maharashtra 3-2 in the semifinals of the Badminton Mixed Team Championship. They will now face the HS Prannoy-led Kerala team, which got the better of hosts Gujarat 3-1, in the summit clash.

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The Telangana-Maharashtra match, expectedly, was a fascinating clash. Men’s doubles specialist Chirag Shetty teamed up with Ritika Thaker to beat Vishnuvardhan Goud and Gayatri Gopichand 21-13, 16-21, 21-15 in 49 minutes to put Maharashtra in the lead.

B Sai Praneeth, former World Championship bronze medallist, then routed Varun Kapur 21-10, 21-14 to restore parity for Telangana. It looked like Samiya Imad Farooqui would put the top seeds ahead when she had three match points in the second game against Malvika Bansod. But the left-handed Maharashtra shuttler not only saved those but also went on to win the third and final game.

This meant that the onus to save the tie for Telangana fell on the experienced combination of B Sumeeth Reddy and Vishnuvardhan Goud. But it looked all lost when Chirag and Viplav Kuvale took the opening game, taking a 11-7 advantage in the second. Sumeeth and Visnuvardhan, however, turned the tables on them to force the decider. In the third and final game, the Maharashtra combination managed to save three match points but not the match. The Telangana duo won 18-21, 21-19, 23-21.

The women’s doubles combination of N Sikki Reddy and Gayatri Gopichand then breezed past Ritika and Simran Singhi 21-9, 21-16 to hand their team a spot in the final. “We were aware that the match hinged on the doubles performance. We thought Samiya had a good opportunity against Malvika but somehow she made a few errors to lose the match,’’ said Telangana coach Rajender Kumar.

The State badminton team advanced into the final as they beat Maharashtra 3-0 in the semifinals. In the mixed doubles match the state pair P Vishnuvardhan Goud and P Gayatri Gopichand lost to Chirag Shetty and Ritika Thaker 2-3.
However, Vishnuvardhan Goud paired with Sumeeth Reddy and defeated Chirag Shetty and Viplav K 18-21, 21-19, 23-21 in the men’s doubles.

Meanwhile B Sai Praneeth thrashed Varun Kapur in straight games 21-10, 21-14 in the men’s singles. In the women’s singles Samiya Imad lost to Malvika Bansod 21-15, 20-22, 6-21.

Later, N Sikki Reddy and Gayatri Gopichand downed Simran Singhi and Ritika Thaker 21-9, 21-16 to guide Telangana to the title clash. The Telangana squash team compromising of Apoorva, Arya and Ishwarya recorded victories over the Bihar team 3-0 to sail into the quarterfinals.