BWF World Junior Championships 2023: Ayush Shetty wins bronze medal

Indian badminton player Ayush Shetty won a bronze medal at the BWF World Junior Championships 2023 in Spokane, USA after losing the men’s singles semi-finals on Saturday. This was India’s 11th medal at the junior badminton world championships.

Saina Nehwal clinched a gold medal in 2008 and it remains India’s best result at the event. She also bagged a silver in 2006. India’s S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian too won a silver in 2022.

Overall, Indian badminton players have won one gold, four silvers and six bronze medals at the BWF World Junior Championships since it began in 1992.

In a closely contested semi-final match in Spokane, Ayush Shetty went down to fourth-seeded Alwi Farhan of Indonesia 21-18, 21-15 in 45 minutes.

The first game was tied at 16-all. However, the Indonesian upped his game from there and won the first game with a three-point margin.

With momentum against him, Ayush Shetty was down 4-0 in the second game in no time. Ayush Shetty mounted a comeback to level the scores at 13-13 but conceded eight of the next 10 points to go down in straight games.

Ayush Shetty began his campaign at the junior badminton world championships in the round of 128. Before the loss in the semi-finals, Ayush Shetty won four of his five matches in straight games.

Tara Shah was the only Indian women’s singles player to make it to the quarter-finals where she lost to the People’s Republic of China’s Wen Jing Xu. India’s campaign in the mixed doubles ended in the round of 16 while India’s challenge in the men’s and women’s doubles fizzled out in the round of 32.

In the BWF World Junior Mixed Teams Championships late last month in Spokane, India’s run ended in the quarter-finals and went on to finish seventh in the final standings.