The Indian women's badminton team on Sunday scripted history after they won maiden Badminton Asia Championships title in Malaysia's Selangor. The Indian women's badminton team defeated Thailand by 3-2 in the final match to get hold of their first-ever medal at the prestigious Badminton Asia
The women, led by two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, defeated China for the first time in a team event with 17-year-old Anmol Kharab coming up with an inspired performance to ensure a 3-2 score line in the Indian's favour in the Group W clash.
India's star badminton men's doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty has received the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award at the Rashtrapati Bhawan by the President of India, Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday.
They played their fourth final of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour this year, having won other three of them - Swiss Open 2023, Indonesia Open 2023 and Korea Open 2023 - earlier this year.
Earlier, Indian shuttlers Sai Pratheek and Tanisha Crasto bowed out in the mixed doubles round of 16 while duo Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand lost in the women's doubles round of 16 on Wednesday.
Lakshya Sen and the men's doubles pair Satwik Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty got India off to a flier but India failed to capitalise on it as they let the hosts China script a comeback and take the tie 3-2.
Notably, it was Shifeng that Sen had defeated in the final of the men's singles competition at the Canada Open recently on July 9 by 21-18, 22-20 within two straight games to win his fourth BWF World Tour title after Dutch Open, SaarLorLux Open (2019) and Indian Open (2022).
After undergoing a rigorous two-week preparatory training camp at the Tau Devilal Stadium in Panchkula, the 18-member Indian squad are ready to leave for the Badminton Asia Junior Championships to be held in Indonesia from July 7-16.
The 2021 World Championship medallists Kidambi Srikanth and Lakshya Sen will face off against younger challengers at the selection trails for the upcoming Asian Games to be held at the Jwala Gutta Academy in Hyderabad from May 4-7.
In the men's singles competition, Kidambi Srikanth bowed out of the competition in the round of 16 stage. He lost to Japan's Kodai Naraoka 14-21, 22-20, 9-21