NEW DELHI: Top shuttlers PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth won the women’s and men’s titles, respectively, at the 78th Senior National Badminton Championships at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here Monday.
World Championship bronze medallist Sindhu won her second national title after 2011 while it is a first for Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold winner Srikanth.
Defending mixed doubles champions Aparna Balan and Arun Vishnu retained their crown while Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa regained the women’s doubles crown for the first time since 2009.
Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar won their maiden men’s doubles title.
Meanwhile, Kuhoo Garg and Chirag Sen became the youngest players to win a medal in the tournament when they defeated Pranaav Chopra and Maneesha K in mixed doubles semifinals.
The unheralded pair clinched the bronze medal on their maiden appearance in the Nationals after their fancied rivals Pranaav Chopra and Maneesha conceded the match in the third game with the score reading 22-20 16-21 1-3.
However, Kuhoo and Chirag suffered a 9-21 11-21 defeat to the experienced combo of Arun Vishnu and Aparna Balan, seeded second, in the semifinals.
Kuhoo and Chirag, who are in the age category of under-16, reached the quarterfinals after beating fourth seeded players Rachita Sahdev and Abhinav Manota.
The Uttarakhand shuttlers had participated for the first time in Senior National Badminton Championship and won the Bronze Medal.
Kuhoo, who is a recipient of Sports Scholarship from ONGC, was selected for Indian Junior team and had participated in Badminton Asia Youth U-19 Championships at Malaysia in July this year. She also participated in U-17 Badminton Asia Youth Championships held in Kudos, Indonesia in October where she reached Quarter Finals.
She also participated in Junior World Championships 2013 in Bangkok, Thailand from October 23 to November 3.
A student of Class XI in Sanskrit School, Kuhoo will join Pullela Gopichand’s Academy in Hyderabad for further training.
