Panchkula: Top talent from the country will be hoping to emulate the heroics of P.V. Sindhu and Lakshya Sen when an 18-member Indian squad sets off for the Badminton Asia Junior Championships to be held in Indonesia from July 7-16.
Sindhu was the first to claim a gold medal in the 2012 Championships, Lakshya Sen added to that tally in 2018 in this junior tournament, which is a stepping stone for shuttlers aspiring to grow in the sport.
The current Indian junior squad is high on confidence after undergoing a rigorous two-week preparatory training camp at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium in Panchkula.
The 14 days training camp aimed to bolster the team’s preparations was supported by REC Limited, a Maharatna Company under the Ministry of Power along with the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Badminton Association of India (BAI) to strengthen the development program of Indian badminton.
“We at BAI are extremely delighted to welcome REC Limited and Mr Vivek Dewangan to the Badminton family. This two-week training camp has helped to create a nice build-up ahead of the tournament,” said Badminton Association of India General Secretary, Sanjay Mishra.
"I am confident this camp has also helped the team to bond and know each other better. We have a formidable squad that has the ability to challenge the best. I wish each of them as well as the coaching staff, all the best for the Championships,” the BAI General Secretary, Sanjay Mishra was quoted as saying in a release.
REC Limited, in various capacities, has been supporting and powering excellence. As part of this partnership with REC Limited, BAI aims to boost development and training programmes that will help in achieving excellence while driving grassroots projects and necessary support systems for badminton in India.
Speaking about the partnership and vision, Vivek Kumar Dewangan, Chief Managing Director, REC Limited said, "The target is to groom and nurture our young players right from sub-junior level. We have to identify the talent and provide them with world-class training facilities and environment so that they can bring medals under Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS). We aim to make sure that the juniors bring medals for the country at the senior level too."
Vivek Dewangan is an avid badminton player and also represented Madhya Pradesh nationally at the under-15 level.
In the group stage, India are pitted in Group C along with Malaysia, Bangladesh and Hong Kong. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the knockout stage. In the past, India has won two gold medals, one silver and a bronze.
Indian squad for Badminton Asia Junior Championship:
Boys' Singles: Lakshya Sharma, Samarveer, Ayush Shetty And Dhruv Negi.
Girls' Singles: Rakshitha Sree S, Shriyanshi Valishetty, Tara Shah And Anmol Kharb.
Boys' Doubles: Nicholas Nathan Raj/ Tushar Suveer And Divyam Arora/ Mayank Rana.
Girls' Doubles: Radhika Sharma/ Tanvi Sharma And Karnika Sree S./ Taneesha Singh
Mixed Doubles: Samarveer/ Radhika Sharma And Arulmurugan R./ Srinidhi N.—IANS
