Indian Shuttlers Assure Eight Medals at South Asian Games

Pokhara, Dec 4 (PTI) Indian shuttlers continued their dominating show at the 13th South Asian Games with four individuals and as many doubles pairs cruising into the semifinals to assure themselves of medals, here on Wednesday.

Top seed Siril Verma started the day on a winning note for India when he beat Pakistan's Murad Ali 21-12 21-17 in a men's singles quarterfinal match.

In the women's singles, 16-year-old Gayathri Gopichand stunned second seed Mahoor Shahzad of Pakistan with a convincing 21-15 21-16 win.

Joining Gayathri in the semifinals was top seed Ashmita Chaliha, who also thrashed Pakistani opponent, Palwasha Bashir 21-9 21-7.

Aryaman Tandon was another Indian after Verma to reach the men's singles semifinals after registering 21-17 21-17 win over Sri Lanka's Ranthushka Karunathilake.

The Indian women's doubles pairings of Kuhoo Garg-Anoushka Parikh and Meghana Jakkampudi-S Nelakurthi also progressed to the semifinals after beating their Bangladeshi opponents.

While, Garg and Parikh beat Bristi Khatun and Rehana Khatun 21-18 21-11, Jakkampudi and Nelakurthi notched up 21-14 21-11 victory over Shalpa Akter and Alina Sultana.

In mixed doubles, top seeds Dhruv Kapila and Jakkampudi had to fight hard in the second set against Sri Lanka's Ranthushka Karunathilake and Kavindi Sirimannage before clinching the match 21-14 26-24.

The only setback for India came in the men's doubles category when top seeded pair of Arun George and Sanyam Shukla lost to Sri Lanka's S Dias Angoda Vidanalage and B Tharindu Dullew 10-21 21-23.

However, Krishna Garaga and Kapila kept India's medal hopes alive in the men's doubles category when they thrashed second seed Dipesh Dhami and Ratanjit Tamang of Nepal 21-16 21-13.

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