National Badminton Championships 2024: Anmol Kharb aims for title defence
Malvika Bansod, Unnati Hooda, Tanisha Crasto, Chirag Sen and Priyanshu Rajawat will be among the top players in action in Bengaluru.
Badminton
Paris 2024 Olympian Tanisha Crasto and rising shuttlers Anmol Kharb, Malvika Bansod and Unnati Hooda will be among the top players in action at the National Badminton Championships 2024 starting in Bengaluru from Wednesday.
The badminton championships will begin with the inter-zonal team competitions on the opening two days. The tournament will run from December 18 to 24.
The individual events will start on Friday with Chirag Sen and Anmol Kharb looking to retain their respective men’s and women’s singles titles on the badminton courts of the Karnataka Badminton Association.
The 17-year-old Anmol Kharb, who was instrumental in India’s historic gold medal win at the Badminton Asia Team Championships earlier this year, is expected to face stiff challenge from the likes of the experienced Malvika Bansod and Aakarshi Kashyap.
Olympic medallist Saina Nehwal was the last player to win back-to-back national titles in women’s singles in 2017 and 2018.
Meanwhile, Bansod, 32nd in the world badminton rankings, is the top-ranked women’s singles player at the national championships.
The 17-year-old Unnati Hooda, last edition’s finalist Tanvi Sharma and upcoming shuttler Rakshitha Sree will also be among the top contenders in the women’s singles.
In the men’s singles, Chirag Sen will have to overcome the challenge from Priyanshu Rajawat, Kiran George and last year’s runners-up M Tharun. Chetan Anand was the last player to retain the men’s singles title in 2007.
Priyanshu Rajawat, at world No. 34, is the top-ranked men’s singles player at the competition.
The National Badminton Championships will also see competitions in the men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles events.
Tanisha Crasto and her partner Dhruv Kapila will be the defending champions in the mixed doubles. K Pruthvi Roy/Suraj Goala and Priya Devi Konjengbam/Shruti Mishra won the men’s and the women’s doubles titles last year.
The National Badminton Championships 2024 will conclude on Tuesday.