Mumbai: Ashutosh Pednekar and Deanne Rodrigues won a double crown, while hosts Bombay Gymkhana ‘A’ (BG) won the team championship in the elite group at the 26th G.D. Birla memorial masters inter-club badminton tournament. Ashutosh teamed-up with Bibhash Chatterjee in the men’s doubles 105+ combined age group final to comfortably defeat Chetan Vora and Yogesh Sanghvi 21-11, 21-18.
Deanne partnered Palkan Dave in the women’s doubles 75+ combined age group final to ease past Pooja Khandekar and Swapnal Chakrabarty 21-15, 21-13. Ashutosh and Deanne then received a walk-over from Shailesh Daga and Palkan Dave in the mixed doubles 80+ combined age group final that earned both of them a double crown.
In the team championship event, hosts Bombay Gymkhana ‘A’ overcame MIG 2-1 in a keenly contested final to win the elite group title. In the first clash, the newly-elected secretary of GMBA, Mangirish Palekar teamed-up with Pramod Ahuja to beat MIG’s Yogesh Padukone and Prashant Bhatre 21-19, 21-12. MIG, through the experienced Mayur Tawde and Niranjan Sahane came back strongly to beat BG’s Naval Kumar and Gautam Laud 21-14, 21-18.
With the scores level at 1-1, BG’s badminton secretary Ayaz Bilawala and Amol Shah kept their focus to beat Ajit Nair and Jitesh Padukone 21-10, 21-18 to win the match and the crown. In the plate group final, CCI ‘A’ convincingly defeated Navi Mumbai Badminton ‘B’ 2-0 to emerge victorious.
Results: Professional singles – R Samant bt. M Nachnekar 21-15, 8-21, 21-11. Doubles – D Golbare & M Nachnekar bt. R Samant & Rajesh Jadhav 21-14, 21-13.
Team Championship:
Elite – Bombay Gymkhana ‘A’ bt. MIG 2-1. Plate – CCI ‘A’ bt. Navi Mumbai Badminton ‘B’ 2-0.
Player of the Tournament – Ashish Khedikar