Goa have an uphill task

Panaji: Hosts Goa face a daunting task as they run into top seeds and defending champions Maharashtra in the juniors semifinals of the West Zone Inter State Badminton Championships, organised by Goa Badminton Association (GBA) under the aegis of Badminton Association of India (BAI) at Multipurpose Stadium, Peddem-Mapusa, on Wednesday.

In the seniors, Goa take on Chhattisgarh for a place in the semifinals. Top seeds Maharashtra and MP are given a direct entry into the semifinals.

Goa last conducted the championship in 2014 as each state get to host the championship on rotation basis.

Top players from Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh , Maharashtra, Gujarat and hosts Goa will compete for the championship titles on September 18-19, while individual events will take place on 21-22. The team championship tie will be played in the best-of-five matches format — singles, doubles in the men’s and women’s categories as well as a mixed doubles match.

All eyes will be on Anjana Kumari and Lydia Barreto, who will spearhead the women ‘s team, while Aashrun Gautam, Tejan Fallary and Floyd Araujo will be leading the men’s side in the senior category.

Lydia will also be in action in the junior girls’ events along with Yasmin Sayed, Aahana Nayak, Sachi Dhavalikar and Tanushri Shadani. The junior boys’ team consists of Sushil Nayak, Shourya Joshi, Arjun Fallary, Aryaman Saraf and Chetan Magdum.

“We will take a call on team formation later as it is too early to decide on who will play in the singles and doubles. We would like to do better than last year and since we are playing at home, we will have an added advantage,” coach Vinayak Kamat said.

Goa had lost to MP in the semifinals in the seniors category, while they went down to Maharashtra in the last-four stage of the juniors.

Top seed Maharashtra are likely to face a challenge from MP as they had defeated MP in both the categories in the last edition at Bilaspur. This year, the defending champions have included Ritika Thaker and Rashi Lambe in the girls as well as the women’s teams, and 14-year-old Tara Shah from Pune has also been included in the team. Kaushal Dharmamer has been named captain of the men’s team.

MP will ride their hopes on 17-year-old Priyanshu Rawat who took Harsheel Dani to the distance in last year’s final. In the absence of Maharashtra’s Harsheel and Neha Pandit, MP will aim to avenge their last year’s loss.