NEW DELHI: India went down fighting to second seeded Indonesia 1-3 in the 5th-6th place play-off to finish sixth in the BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships at Yogjakarta, Indonesia.
The Indian team had earlier lost to Malaysia in the quarterfinals.
India, who were unbeaten in the group stages, could not maintain their winning streak as they first went down to the eventual finalists Malaysia in the quarterfinals and then lost against Indonesia.
India could not get off to a desired start as their mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Rutuparna Panda lost to Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti and Rinov Rivaldy 21-11 21-6 in 28 minutes.
Karthikey Gulshan Kumar replaced World No.2 Laqshya Sen, who had to be rested for an ankle strain, took the fight to Ikshan Leonardo Rumbay before going down 16-21, 20-22 in 46 minutes in the men’s singles encounter.
Men’s doubles pair of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Dhruv Kapila then beat Muhammad Sohibul Fikri and Adnan Maulana 24- 22, 23-21 to pull one back and bring India’s campaign back on track.
However, it did not count much as Aakarshi Kashyap lost narrowly to Gregoria Tunjung 22-24, 21-23 to bring an end to India’s pursuit of a fifth place finish.
“It was a good performance overall by the team. I am satisfied with the way the players have performed. Ofcourse, the results could have been much better but I think overall if you look at, we have lot of positives to take from this outing,” coach Sanjay Mishra said.
Even though India missed out on the medal, they gave a good account for themselves to finish two places higher than 2015, where they finished eighth.
“It would have been great to finish the campaign with a podium finish but the players gave it their all. At times results do not reflect the performance and this tournament is one such instance,” said Anup Narang, secretary of BAI.
India’s best finish in the competition came in 2008, when they finished fourth and their second best is sixth place finish which they had achieved in 2011. (AGENCIES)
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