Senior National Badminton Championships: Lakshya Sen to lead charge

Aakarshi Kashyap headlines women’s singles

The 85th Senior National Badminton Championships is scheduled to be held in Guwahati from December 20 to 26, will see some of the top shuttlers vying for the coveted titles. The tournament, which is organized by the Badminton Association of India (BAI) and hosted by the Assam Badminton Association, will also include the 76th Inter-State and Inter-Zonal team competitions.

According to the secretary of the Assam Badminton Association, Omar Rashid, around 500 players from 39 teams will participate in the event, which will be held at two venues – Deshbhakta Tarun Ram Phukan Indoor Stadium and Kanaklata Indoor Stadium. The tournament carries a total prize money of Rs 50 lakh (10 lakh for the team championship and Rs 40 lakh for the open category). Both men and women singles champions will collect a purse of Rs 3.25 lakh each.

The seedings for the individual events have been announced by the BAI, based on the latest national rankings. In men’s singles, former BWF World Championships bronze medallist, Lakshya Sen, will be the top seed, followed by Kiran George and Kartikey Gulshan. B Sai Praneeth, S Sankar Muthuswamy, and Sameer Verma will enter the tournament unseeded, making the draw more competitive and exciting.

In women’s singles, Aakarshi Kashyap and Ashmita Chaliha will be the first and second seeds respectively, while Anupama Upadhayay will be the fourth seed. Malvika Bansod, who won the women’s singles title at the All India Senior Ranking Tournament in Bangalore last week, will enter the main draw unseeded, along with Unnati Hooda, who will be the 12th seed.

In men’s doubles, Dhruv Kapila and Arjun MR will be the top seeds, followed by Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnu Vardhan Goud. In women’s doubles, R Arubala and Varshini VS will be the top seeds, followed by Simran Singhi and Ritika Thaker.

Men’s Singles

1. Lakshya Sen
2. Kiran George
3. Kartikey Gulshan Kumar
4. M. Tharun
5. Siddhanth Gupta
6. M. Raghu
7. Mithun Manjunath
8. Varun Kapur

Women’s Singles

1. Aakarshi Kashyap
2. Ashmita Chaliha
3. Aditi Rao
4. Anupama Upadhyaya
5. Shruti Mundada
6. Purva Barve
7. Ishani Baruah
8. Ira Sharma

Men’s Doubles

1. Dhruv Kapila/Arjun M.R
2. Deep Rambhiya/Akshan Shetty
3. Hariharan Amsakarunan/ Ruban Kumar R
4. Nithin H.V/ Prakaj Raj. S
5. Suraj Goala/ Pruthvi Roy K
6. Manjit Singh/Dingku Singh Konthoujam
7. Gouse Shaik/Hemagaranaga Babu B.T
8. Anjan Buragohain/Ranjan Buragohain

Women’s Doubles

1. Arulbala R/ Varshini V.S
2. Kavya Gupta/ Deepshika Singh
3. Anagha Pal/ Ridhika Kaur Toor
4. Simran Singhi/Ritika Thaker
5. Riya Mookerjee/ Anura Prabhudesai
6. Samriddhi Singh/ Sonali Singh
7. Aishwarya Mehta/ Priyanka Pant

Mixed Doubles

1. Rohan Kapoor/Sikki Reddy
2. Hemagaranaga Babu B.T/Kanika Kanwal
3. Navaneetha Bekka/Priya Dewi Konjengbam
4. Nithin H.V/Maneesha K
5. Chayanit Joshi/ Kavya Gupta
6. Suraja Gopala/Manali Bora
7. Nitin Kumar/ Navdha Mangalam
8. Akshit Mahajan/ Ridhika Kaur Toor

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