Badminton: Indian juniors win three medals

HYDERABAD: Indians excelled at the Badminton Asia Junior Championships and the Russian Grand Prix.
Teen shuttler Kiran George assured himself of a silver at the Asian meet in Kudus, Indonesia, on Saturday. Chief coach P Gopichand's daughter Gayatri clinched her second successive bronze along with Samiya Imad Farooqui in under-15 doubles while Aakarshi Kashyap bagged bronze in under-17 girls' singles.
Kiran, son of former national champion George Thomas, reached the under-17 boys singles final with a hard fought victory against local lad Alberto Alvin Yulianto 21-16, 19-21, 24-22.
The 16-year-old, who trains at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy in Bangalore lost the second game before recovering to the win the decider. Kiran's brother Arun is a doubles player. In the final, the unseeded shuttler, who train under Vimal Kumar and Prakash Padukone, will face top seed Kunlavut Vitidsam of Thailand. Vitidsam downed Chong King Lim of Malaysia 21-10, 21-13 in the other semi-final.
Earlier, Aakarshi Kashyap went down to third seed Chasinee Korepap of Thailand 21-19, 21-15 in the under-17 girls singles semi-final.
Gayatri Gopichand, who won the bronze with Vaishnavi Reddy last year, once again claimed the bronze, this time with her training partner Samiya. The duo went down to second seeds Yeon Yoo of Korea 16-21, 13-21.