Rohan Castelino loses
after fine run
India's top-ranked junior Rohan Castelino's fine run at the World Junior badminton championships in Pretoria, South Africa, came to an end in the quarter-finals.
In a hard-fought match, Castelino was beaten in straight games by sixth seed Lee Yen Hui Kendric of Singapore 15-7, 17-14.
In the other quarter-finals in the boys' section, top seed Korean Park Sung Hwan got the better of Xie Xin of China 15-12, 15-5 and will now meet Lee Yen Kendric in the semi-finals, while in the bottom-half, Chen Jin of China beat hwang Ji Man of Korea 15-3, 15-1 and second-seeded Hendra Wijaya of Singapore defeated Purnomo Roy of Indonesia 15-7, 15-7.
Castelino had a first round bye. He beat Wai Hong Wong of Hong Kong 15-12, 15-8 in the second round; Grigori Orlov of Russia 15-7, 15-12 in third and Simon Santoso of Indonesia in the pre-quarter-finals.
Three other Indians crashed out in the third round. Anand Pawar lost to Xie Xin of China 7-15, 13-15; Nishad Dravid lost to Chen Jin of China 5-15, 5-15 and Bahniman Borah lost to Yao Ting Fang of Taipei 15-5, 9-15, 4-15.
In the girls' singles, three Indians went down in the third round. Aditi Mutatkar lost to Yoon Hee Seo of Korea 9-11, 4-11; Dhanya Nair went down to Maria Vaisanen of Finland 1-11, 3-11 and Krishna Dekaraja lost to Salakjit Polsana of Thailand 4-11, 0-11.
Another Indian, Aparna Balan went down in the second round to Chen Li of China.
In boys' doubles, Castelino and Anand Pawar lost to the Thai pair of Nitipong Saengsila and Kovit Phisetsarasai 7-15, 11-15 in the second round. The other Indian pair of Bahniman Borah and Nishad Dravid also lost in the second round.
In the girls' doubles, Aditi Mutatakar and Krishna Dekaraja lost in the third round to the Danish pair of Camilla Sorensen and Mie Schjott Kristensen 3-11, 12-13, while Aparna Balan and Dhanya Nair went down in the third round to the second seeded Thai pair of Kulchala Worawichitchaikul and Duang-Anong Arunkesorn 6-11, 0-11.
In the teams event last week, India finished ninth, defeating Denmark 3-2 in the 9/10th place play-off. China won the event while Korea finished second. Indoensia and Thailand finished third and fourth respectively.
