Badminton: Pune eves enter semis

The Pune District womens badminton team entered the semifinals of the Team Championship event of the Maharashtra Senior Inter-District and State Badminton Championship .

The Pune District womens badminton team entered the semifinals of the Team Championship event of the Maharashtra Senior Inter-District and State Badminton Championship which kicked off at the Nashik Gymkhana in Nashik yesterday,blanking minnows Gondia 2-0.

They will be joined in the last four by Thane and Greater Mumbai,who also secured similar straight-set victories,while Mumbai Suburban were handed a walk-over by the Hingoli team.

The city shuttlers also entered the quarterfinals of the Mens Team Championship Event,thrashing Amravati 3-0.

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This years State Championship is set to break all earlier participation records with shuttlers from 19 districts slugging it out for the honours at the Nashik Gykhmana from September 13-19. Last year,only 14 districts had participated.

The tournament,organized by the Nashik District Badminton Association,will kick start with the Inter-District championship,followed by individual championships in five categories: mens singles,mens doubles,womens singles,womens doubles,mixed Doubles.

Punes Nikhil Kanetkar,seeded first in the Mens singles,will be hoping to defend the title he won last year. Other Pune players among the top seeds include Mayank Gole (2),Nihar Tilekar (5) and Ankush Jadhav (7).

In the Womens singles draw,fourth seed Rucha Nikam will be hoping to make a mark as the lone seeded player from Pune.

Individual seeding:

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Mens singles: 1. Nikhil Kanetkar (PN),2. Mayank Gole (PNE),3. Sarang Lakhanee (NGP),4. Prashant Bahatare (TH),5. Nihar Tilekar (PN),6. Eshan Naqvi (TH),7.Ankush Jadhav (PN),8-Tom Thomas (NGP)

Womens singles: 1. Jui Agaskar (TH),2. Paarsa Naqvi (TH),3. Riya Pillai (MS),4. Rucha Nikam (PN).