Indian contingent affixed their stamp of authority and completed a clean sweep at the 1st South Asian Regional Badminton Tournament played here at the Tarun Ram Phookan Indoor Stadium on Friday.
India who had earlier won the team championships showed their class once again as they annexed all the five titles that was up for grabs.
In an all India final in the boys’ singles competition, top seeded Arindam Tandon clashed with third seeded Arintap Dasgupta and as expected it was a grueling encounter with both the shuttlers locked in a neck to neck battle. Arintap took the opening game 21-19, but Arindam made a stunning comeback to seal the second game 21-11. The decider was a keenly contested one with Arindam eventually pocketing the game 21-14 to seal the championship.
In another all India clash, local star Ashmita Chaliha pulled off a stunning upset victory over top seeded Aakarshi Kashyap to win the girls’ singles event. Ashmita took the first game 21-16 but lost the next one 15-21 to surrender the lead.
However, she held on to her nerves in the final game and won it 21-14 to claim the title.
In the men’s doubles encounter, Indian duo of Arintap Dasgupta and Krishna Parsad seeded second registered a hard-fought victory over top seeded Nepalese pair of Dipesh Dhami and Nabin Shrestha 21-17, 18-21,21-13 to win the title, while second seeded women’s doubles team Ashmita Chaliha and Mithula U K beat top seeded pair Fathmath Nabaaha and Aminath Nabeeha of Maldives 21-10,21-7.
In the mixed doubles encounter, top seeded team of Krishna Parsad and Mithula U K got the better Jumar Amin Amin of Bangladesh 21-8,21-7 to complete the rout for the hosts.