India’s junior shuttlers caused multiple upsets to finish their campaign with three gold, one silver and two bronze medals at the Bulgarian Junior International Championships 2019 in Pazardzhik on Sunday.

While Samiya Imad Farooqui captured the girls’ singles gold, the girls’ doubles pair of Tanisha Crasto and Aditi Bhatt and the mixed doubles combine of Edwin Joy and Shruti Mishra finished on top of the podium as well.

2017 U-15 Asian Junior Championships gold medallist Samiya Imad Farooqui showed superb resilience and strong nerves in fighting back from a game down to secure a 9-21, 21-12, 22-20 win over the second seed Anastasiia Shapovalova in 59 minutes.

Promising doubles pair of Tanisha Crasto and Aditi Bhatt were equally impressive in their final and stunned the Turkish top seeds Bengisu Ercetin and Zehra Erdem 21-15, 18-21, 21-18.

Edwin Joy and Shruti Mishra brought more delight for the Indian contingent with their effortless 21-14, 21-17 win over the British second seeds Brandon Zhi Hao Yap and Abbygael Harris.

The only final result that did not go India’s way was in the boys’ doubles where the top-seeded British pair of William Jones and Brandon Zhi Hao inflicted a 21-19, 21-18 defeat on fourth seeds Ishan Bhatnagar and Vishnu Vardhan Goud Panjala.

Other than these results, a couple of Indians bowed out in the semi-finals and clinched bronze. In girls’ singles, Anastasiia Shapovalova beat India’s Malvika Bansod 21-13, 21-15 while in boys’ singles, India’s highly-talented junior World No. 15 Meiraba Luwang succumbed to a 19-21, 21-12, 18-21 defeat to the top seed and eventual champion Georgii Karpov.

National Junior Coach, Sanjay Mishra said, “The shuttlers displayed lot of nerve and resilience beating top seeded and higher ranked players.The performance here will definitely give loads of confidence to these junior players as we prepare for the upcoming World Championships.”

Results

GS: Samiya Imad Faruqui bt Anastasiia Shapovalova- 9-21, 21-12, 22-20
XD: Edvin Joy & Shruti Mishra bt Brandon Zhi Hao/ Abbygael Harris-21-14, 21-17
GD: Tanisha Crasto/Aditi Bhatt bt Bengisu Ercetin/ Zehra Erdfm 21-15, 18-21, 21-18
BD: Ishan Bhatnagar/Vishnuvardhan bt William Jones/Brandon Zhi Hao 19-21, 18-21
GS (semis): Malvika Bansod lost to Anastasiia Shapovalova 13-21, 15-21
BS (semis): Meiraba Luwang lost Georgii Karpov 19-21, 21-12, 18-21