Gloom descends on State badminton meet

Upcoming Pramod Rana caused a major upset by defeating second seed K N Raju in a men’s singles pre-quarterfinal match of the State Badminton Championship at Nalco Indoor Hall in Angul today. In another upset of the day, K Manoj Kumar eliminated S S Rath to enter the boys’ singles semifinals. Meanwhile, top seed Gayatree Mishra and Monalisa Mohanty (both Bhubaneswar) set up the women’s singles title clash by winning their semifinal matches in straight games. A pal of gloom descended on the championship with the news of the passing away of former secretary of Orissa State Badminton Association, Bibhuti Bhusan Mohanty at Kalinga Hospital in Bhubaneswar earlier in the day. Mohanty, 67, died off a cardiac arrest. Players and officials paid homage to the departed soul at a condolence meeting. Results: Men’s singles (PQFs): A Appa Rao bt Jayananda Sahu 21-7, 21-6: D Subhakanta Mohanty bt B Behera 21-19, 21-12: R Mohapatra bt A Babu 21-14, 21-6: Rabi Babu bt N Khan 23-1, 22-20: Chitta Ranjan Satpathy bt Manmit Mohanty 21-14, 21-16: Gyan Chand bt S Nepak 21-10, 21-16: Pramod Rana bt K N Raju 21-14, 21-17: S Pradhan bt Sarthak Patnaik 21-18, 22-20. Women’s singles (SFs): Gayatree Mishra bt Manisha 21-6, 21-3: Monalisa Mohanty bt L Khilo 25-23, 21-16. Girls’ singles (SFs): Monalisa Mohanty bt Jasmin Sahoo 21-10, 21-11: L Khilo bt M Sahoo 21-11, 21-13. Boys’ singles (QFs): Pramod Rana bt A Khan 21-13, 21-11: A Brahmapurkar bt Sapan Sasmal 21-23, 21-14, 22-20: K Babu bt Soumen 21-17, 21-9: K Manoj Kumar bt S S Rath 21-17, 21-9.