Lakshya ensures medal for India; sails into semis at Jakarta
New Delhi: Sixth-seeded Lakshya Sen caused one of the major upsets so far in the Badminton Asia Junior Championships when he toppled second-seeded Chinese Li Shifeng 21-14, 21-12 to enter the men singles semi-finals on the third day of the individual events at Jakarta on Friday. Lakskya, who ensured himself with at least a bronze medal, will take on Indonesian and fourth seed Ikhsan Leonardo Rumbay in the semi-finals on Saturday. However, the semi-final showdown with the local may not be as easy. Yet, the way Lakshya has displayed his prowess, particularly against the second seed Chinese, his capability cannot be doubted against the Indonesian. Earlier, the men doubles’ pair of Manjit Singh and Dingko Singh bowed out in the pre-quarters to top-seeded Chinese duo of Di Zijian and Wang Chang, the title favourites. The Chinese pair won 21-7, 21-15. (UNI)
Archery WC: Indian mixed pair team in bronze play-off
Berlin: Compound mixed pair of Abhishek Verma and Jyothi Surekha Vennam kept India in the hunt for a second medal, advancing to the bronze play-off at the stage four of the Archery World Cup on Friday. The recurve archers, on the other hand, continued their poor show ahead of the Asian Games, making a quarterfinal exit in the mixed pair event. The duo of Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari, who qualified as 10th seed, were blown away by the Chinese Taipei pair of Tan Ya-Ting and Wei Chun-Heng 0-6. A day after women’s compound team advanced to the final to be assured of a medal, Jyothi partnered Abhishek Verma in a dream run that saw them ousting top seed Netherlands 158-155 in the quarterfinals. But their run was halted in the semifinals when they lost narrowly to fourth seed USA pair of Kris Schaff and Paige Pearce Gore. Trailing by a point in first two ends, the Indian pair levelled it 115-all in the third. But, USA had a perfect finish with four 10s including one X (closest to the centre) to pip India by one point. India will fight it out against Turkey in the bronze play-off on Saturday. Receiving a top-nine bye into round two, India had defeated Croatia 156-155 to begin their campaign. Jyothi, along with Trisha Deb and Muskan Kirar, will fight it out for a gold medal against their opponents from France in the women’s compound team summit clash ton Saturday. This is their second final appearance in three months. The Indian women’s team had lost to Chinese Taipei to settle for a silver in the Antalya leg of the World Cup in May. (PTI)