Talented youngster Harshit Mahimkar was in impressive form and enjoyed a rewarding day by clinching a grand treble, winning the Boys’ Under-15 and Under-17 singles and Boys’ Under-17 doubles finals in the CCI-GMBA Yonex Sunrise District Badminton Championship 2023, and played at the CCI badminton courts on Thursday.
The 14-year-old Harshit of Blossom ST English HS, Marine Lines and who has been training at Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad since the past six months, played with loads of confidence in the two singles matches. In the under-15 final, Harshit outplayed Adyant Gupta winning in two quick games at 21-9 and 21-7. Later, in the under-17 final, he maintained the winning momentum and brushed aside the challenge from Anay Pingulkar racing to a 21-9 and 21-11 victory to win his third title.
Earlier, in the boys’ under-17 doubles final, the second seeded pair of Harshit and Sahil Gurbuxani combined well to tame the top-seeded pairing of Adyant Gupta and Angad Tathgir coasting to a 21-12 and 21-8 win.
Meanwhile in the girls’ action, Aanya Iyer defeated Insiyah Tilawadwala 21-11, 21-2 to win the under-11 title, Risha Parab staved off a spirited fight from Imaan Motorwala snatching a 21-13, 21-19 win in the girls’ under-13 final. Later, Riya Vinherkar claimed the under-15 title recording a 21-6, 21-2 win against Thea Sheth. However, in the under-17 final, the second seeded Riya proved no match for the superior and top seed Naishaa Kaur Bhatoye and suffered a 7-21, 3-21 defeat.
Results (all finals) – Girls’ U-11 singles: Aanya Iyer Vs Insiyah Tilawadwala 21-11, 21-2.
Girls’ U-13 singles: Risha Parab Vs Imaan Motorwala 21-13, 21-19;
Girls’ U-15 singles: Riya Vinherkar Vs Thea Sheth 21-6, 21-2;
Girls’ U-17 singles: 1-Naishaa Kaur Bhatoye bt 2-Riya Vinherkar 21-7, 21-3.
Boys’ U-11 singles: Kaveer Mehta bt Aadiraj Shetty 21-16, 21-12.
Boys’ U-15 singles: Harshit Mahimkar bt Adyant Gupta 21-9, 21-7;
Boys’ U-17 singles: 1-Harshit Mahimkar Vs Anay Pingulkar 21-9, 21-11.
Boys’ U-17 doubles: 2-Harshit Mahimkar/Sahil Gurbuxani bt 1-Adyant Gupta/Angad Tathgir 21-12, 21-8.
Semi-final results: Boys’ U-13 singles: Kaveer Mehta bt Aarush Mittal 21-17, 21-17; Ruhaan Bhatia bt Abeer Siddique 21-11, 21-12.
Girls’ U-19 singles: 2-Riya Vinherkar bt Ananya Shah 21-8, 21-14 1-Naishaa Kaur Bhatoye bt Devanshi Shinde 21-1, 21-0.
Boys’ U-19 singles: 2-Pranav Kamble bt 3-Harshit Mahimkar 21-14, 21-6; 1-Piyush Kamble bt 4-Sahil Gurbuxani 21-15, 21-17.
Women’s singles: 1-Naishaa Kaur Bhatoye bt Anagha Karandikar 21-9, 21-13; 2-Taarini Suri bt Shivani Herlekar 21-11, 21-11.
Men’s singles: Pranav Kamble bt Manjunath Chavan 22-20, 21-18; Shubham Pal bt Nigel D’Sa 21-17, 21-9.