GANDHINAGAR: World Championships bronze medallist B Sai Praneeth and Aakarshi Kashyap were on Thursday crowned the men's and women's badminton singles champions at the National Games Gujarat, notching up contrasting wins against their respective rivals.
While top seed Praneeth, representing Telangana, earned a hard-fought win over Karnataka's Mithun Manjunath 21-11, 12-21, 21-16, Chhattisgarh's second seed Aakarshi cruised to a 21-8, 22-20 victory over Maharashtra's Malvika Bansod to take home the women's singles gold.
Telangana's N Sikki Reddy and Pullela Gayatri Gopichand justified their top billing by claiming the women's doubles gold, while Karnataka's pairing of Ashwini Ponnappa and K Sai Prateek annexed the mixed doubles title.
In aquatics, Surajit Rajbansi and H London Singh ensured a 1-2 for Services in the men's diving, executing their routines perfectly at the Sardar Patel Swimming Complex in Rajkot.
In basketball, Telangana prevented a Tamil Nadu double in Bhavnagar, winning the women's basketball gold with a 67-62 scoreline, after leading 35-31 at half-time. On Wednesday, Telangana women had clinched the 3x3 side's gold. In the men's title clash, Tamil Nadu defeated Punjab 97-89 after holding a 46-42 lead at the break.
