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| Photo Credit: BISWARANJAN ROUT
India’s U-15 and U-19 boys’ squads defeated Singapore and Hong Kong in the quarterfinals before settling for bronze medals at the 27th Asian Youth 2023 here.
The two teams failed to cross the semifinal hurdles and ended up with the bronze medals from the outing, a qualification event for the World Youth Championships in Slovenia in December.
The U-15 girls lost in the quarterfinals 0-3 to Japan, but the U-19 girls managed to take a game off Japan before bowing out 1-3.
In the Under-15 category, PB Abhinand beat Le Ellsworth of Singapore 11-9, 11-5, 11-7 to set the ball in motion.
Priyanuj Bhattacharyya dropped a game against Xing Yao before overpowering to win 11-8, 9-11, 11-5, 12-10, and the two Indians struggled against the pair of Irle Eles and Zhou Jinghe but won 11-8, 11-5, 7-11, 6-11, 11-7. In the semi-final on Wednesday, they went down 0-3 to China.
As for the U-19 boys, the Indians had a tough time against Hong Kong, with their quarterfinal going down to the last rubber in which Jash Modi turned the tables against Yiu Kwan to win 6-11, 10-12, 11-8, 11-8, 11-2.
Modi, who lost his opening tie to Chan Baldwin Ho Wah 8-11, 5-11, 5-11, lost the first two games to Yiu before pulling up his socks to outwit him and put India in the semi-final.
Earlier, Ankur Bhattacharjee beat Yiu 11-8, 11-8. 11-7 before Divyansh Srivastava defeated Li Hon Man 11-6, 11-8, 8-11, 12-10 to seal the fate of Hong Kong players.
Like their juniors, the U-16 boys met championship favourites China in the semi-final and lost 0-3.
In position matches, the Under-19 girls finished seventh after beating Iran 3-0.
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