India win two bronze in World Jr badminton

Indian shuttlers B Sai Praneeth and H S Prannoy won two bronze medals in the recently-concluded Junior World Badminton Championships in Guadalajara, Mexico.

There was more good news for India, as Parneeth, Prannoy, among the boys, and PV Sindhu, girls, qualified for the Youth Olympic Games, to be held at Singapore in August.

The tournament, which concluded on April 25, saw some brilliant performance from the Indian junior shuttlers, mainly Prannoy and Praneeth.

Prannoy had a good run in the tournament. He first beat second seed Malaysian Loh Wei Sheng in the first round and then notched a win against ninth seeded Hseih Feng of Chinese Taipei in the pre-quarter finals.

In the quarter-finals, Prannoy defeated Liu Kai of China 21-9, 21-9 before going down 9-21, 13-21 to Korean Kong Ji Wook in the semi-finals.

Praneeth also put up a splendid performance, defeating Boonyakorn Thumphanichwong of Thailand in the first round, before getting past Claer Bout Lucas of France in the pre-quarters.

The Indian lad then defeated Subagja Riyanto of Indonesia 21-14, 21-10 in the quarter-finals before succumbing in the semi-finals to Axelsen Viktor of Denmark 17-21, 21-17, 15-21.

In the girls' singles, PV Sindhu was at her best as she defeated fifth seed Korean Choi Hye Jin in the first round before beating Wentholt Josephine of the Netherlands in the pre-quarter-finals.

But the Indian lost in the quarter-finals, going down to second seeded Chinese Suo Di 21-13, 17-21, 15-21.

Later, Sindhu beat Carolina Marin of Spain 21-17, 21-19 to finish fifth.

In the team championships, India defeated America by 3-0, Singapore by 3-0 and England by 3-0 before losing 2-3 to Denmark to finish at the ninth position.