Thane lad bags gold, silver at nat’l badminton c’ship

Thane: City’s prolific shuttler Akshay Dewalkar, claimed gold medal at the Inter State Inter-Zonal Badminton Championships in Rahimtoola Cup in men’s team championships held at Vijaywada recently. Akshay also won a silver medal in the individual category in the men’s doubles event at the senior national badminton championships simultaneously. Dewalkar, representing Air India, won the decider men’s doubles tie against Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) to give his team the gold medal.After both Air India and PSPB were tied with 2-2 each which was left for the decider in which Dewalkar and Gopi Raju defeated Tarun K and Sai Praneeth B in three setter by 18-21, 21-19, 21-14 that brought Air India the gold medal. “The match lasted for 51 minutes and we recorded victory over the fancied rivals,” said Dewalkar.