Sanave-Rupesh win gold at BWF World Sr Badminton C'ships

Indian pair of Sanave Thomas and Rupesh Kumar notched up a lucky victory over compatriots V Diju and J B S Vidyadhar to win the +35 men's doubles crown at the Manorama BWF World Senior Badminton Championships, here today.

It was a historical day for Indian badminton as for the first time ever fans got to witness an all-Indian final in the Senior World Championships.

Sanave and Rupesh won the title after their opponents had to withdrew midway into the third game following a knee injury to Diju in the third game while they were trailing 21-12 17-21 9-7.

"It was a great match and it was unfortunate that it had to end like this. I mean we all knew that they were the favourites to win it but the way we played and gave them a good fight. We were leading in the third game but unfortunately I got injured," Diju said after the match.
 

Elsewhere, Srikant Bakshi and Navdeep Singh of India had to content with the silver medal in the +45 men's doubles category after going down to second seeded Thailand pair of Chatchai Boonmee and Wittaya Panomchai 18-21 21-18 15-21.

K A Aneesh also ended his campaign with a silver medal in the +40 men's single event after losing to Hosemari Fujimoto 21-4 21-9 in the finals.

In the +55 men's singles competition Basant Kumar Soni went down to Pornroj Banditpisut 21-10 21-6 to return with a silver medal.