5th All India Jr Ranking Badminton tournament from tomorrow

Bangalore, Sep 3 (UNI) More than 500 shuttlers will be seen in action in the fifth All India Junior Ranking Badminton Tournament, beginning here tomorrow.

Former All England Champion and Prakash Padukone Academy chief Prakash Padukone told newspersons here today that this year, Under-13 and Under-10 categories had been included and the prize money doubled to Rs two lakh, with the winners in the boy's and girl's singles Under-19 getting richer by Rs 15,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively.

He said the boy's event would be in full strength with the participation of Jishnu Sanyal, Akshay Dewalkar and Ajay Jayaram.

Jishnu and Akshay have just returned from Colombo after helping India win gold in the SAF Games. Ajay and Aditi Mutatkar have also just returned from the far-east after participating in the Korea and Hong Kong Opens as part of the Indian senior men's and women's teams respectively.

Aditi is currently ranked 132 in the world in women's singles, while Ajay had just made his entry into the men's ranking at 497 with a creditable win over World No 12 Eric Pang of the Netherlands in the just-concluded Hong Kong Open, he added.

Padukone said this touranment was part of the national junior tournament circuit, to be followed by the Indore leg from September 11. The Cochin and Chennai legs have been completed. Performance in these events would be considered for the selection of the Indian team for the World Junior Championships, to be held in Incheon City, Korea, from November two.

UNI MSP GD PM KN1604