Unnati, Anish finish with silver at Badminton Asia Junior Championships

U-17 women's singles shuttler Unnati Hooda, men's doubles pair of Arsh Mohammad and Sanskar Saraswat and U-15 men's singles shuttler Anish Thoppani signed off with silver medals at Badminton Asia U-17 & U-15 Junior Championships 2022 in Nonthaburi, Thailand.

Earlier, men's singles shuttler Gnana Dattu and men's doubles pair Bjorn Jaison and Aathish Sreenivas P. V. had secured bronze medals in the U-15 category.

Unnati, who had become the first Indian girls singles shuttler to reach the U-17 final, went down against Sarunrak Vitidsarn of Thailand while, Anish and Arsh/Sanskar fell short against Chinese Taipei's Chung-Hsiang Yih and Lai Po-Yu/Yi-Hao Lin respectively in the finals.

All three Indian finalists were a game down, won the second game, but failed to convert the third.

After losing the first game 18-21, Unnati dominated the next game 21-9. The third was neck to neck till 14-14 before the Thai raced to victory, clinching the decider 21-14.

While Anish was a little off-beat at the start and his opponent from Chinese Taipei took full advantage of that to win the first game 21-8. Anish regrouped in the second game to force a decider. He was always seen calming himself despite tense situations, which yielded results as he pocketed the tougher second game 24-22.

The decider was a close affair but errors on crucial points hurt the Indian's chances as he went down 21-19 in the final game.

The Indian badminton contingent finished the prestigious event with three silver and two bronze medals.

( With inputs from ANI )