Thane Academy beat Tamil Nadu 3-2 to win national-level Republic Day Badminton tournament

NAGPUR: Thane Badminton Academy stunned top seeds Tamil Nadu 3-2 to win the First Republic Day national-level badminton tournament recently held at Gulbarga, Karnataka.
The Inter-State South and West Zone Men’s and Women’s Mixed Team event was organized by Chittapur Taluka Badminton Association under the ageis of Gulbarga District Badminton Association and Karnataka Badminton Association.
In an exciting summit clash, Thane rallied back strongly to edge past formidable Tamil Nadu to clinch the title in the inaugural tournament, played on the lines of Premier Badminton League.
Besides hosts Karnataka, teams from Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa, Rajasthan and Puducherry competed in the ten-team invitational tourney. Champion team received a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh.
In the league-cum-knockout tournament, Thane won two league matches out of three to qualify for the semifinals.
After losing narrowly to Puducherri 2-3, Thane Academy blanked Karnataka and Kerala 5-0 to make the cut for the knockouts.
Thane Academy, based at the Dadoji Konddev Stadium, Thane defeated Telangana 3-2 in the semis.
Vighnesh Devlekar, Deep Rambhiya, Janhavi Kanetkar and Mrunmayee Deshpande were the chief architects of Thane’s win over Telangana, consisted of Gopichand Academy players.
The final against Tamil Nadu was a cliff-hanger. Thane lost the opening men’s singles but Pratik Ranade helped restore the parity by winning the thrilling second men’s singles 22-20, 14-21, 21-19 against Siddharth. In the next match, Janhavi Kanetkar lost the women’s singles as they trailed 1-2 in the best-of-five-matches tie.
The in-form men’s doubles pair of Vighnesh Devlekar and Deep Rambhiya downed TN’s duo of Navin and Ganesh 21-15, 21-16 to level the tie scores 2-2.
In the deciding fifth match, Deep and Mrunmayee Deshpande was up against TN’s Satish and Neela. After both the pairs shared the first two games, the third game was a nail-biting affair.
The left-right Thane pair of Deep and Mrunamyee was down 19-20 but saving a championship point they fought hard and reeled off three successive points to clinch the game and title with a 22-20 verdict.
Simran Singhi, Akshay Raut, Kabir Kanzarkar and Yash Suryawanshi were the other members of the team. Former Indian badminton player Akshay Dewalkar and Vasu Gupta accompanied the team as coach.
“This was Thane’s first national-level title. All the Thane team members are part of the year-long Syed Modi badminton coaching scheme, run with the help of Thane Municipal Corporation. It is a big achievement for us. I would like to congratulate all the team members and support staff,” said Shrikant Vad, head of the Thane Academy.
Thane Municipal Corporation’s sports officer Minal Palande felicitated the champion team and newly crowned Shiv Chhatrapati Award winner Vighnesh Devlekar. Thane District Badminton Association vice-president Vinod Dharap, Mayur Ghatnekar, Reema Devrukhkar, Vikrant Mhatre, Patil and others were present on the occasion.