CUTTACK 02-Sep-2012 386
Uttar Pradesh stopped West Bengal from making a clean sweep of all four titles by emerging champions in the men`s team event of the East Zone Inter-State Badminton Championship that concluded at JN Indoor Stadium here today.
West Bengal shuttlers asserted their supremacy by winning team titles in women, junior boys and girls categories. But their attempt for a clean sweep went in vain as they lost to Uttar Pradesh 1-3 in the men`s final.
Host Odisha`s campaign in the three-day championship ended on a lacklustre note with the men`s team lost to West Bengal 0-3 in the semifinals. Earlier, Odisha fought back from the brink of defeat to beat Uttarakhand 3-2 in the first round. Odisha, however, suffered defeats in three other categories of the championship.
Though Odisha hosted the championship after a long gap of 12 years, the revamped Odisha State Badminton Association failed to could not capitalize on the event to boost the popularity of the sports in the state. The role of the state body in the composition of the home team and wide publicity of the event was far from satisfactory.
Overall results (All finals): Men: Uttar Pradesh beat West Bengal 3-1. Women: West Bengal beat Uttarakhand 2-0. Junior boys: West Bengal bt Uttar Pradesh 2-0. Junior girls: West Bengal bt Uttar Pradesh 2-0.
Odisha results:
Men: First round: Odisha beat Uttarakhand 3-2 (K Manoj Kumar lost to Deepak Bist 9-21, 7-21; Pramod Rana lost to Chirag Sen 14-21, 15-21; Kamal Das-Chitta Ranjan Satpathy bt Mohit Tiwari-Ayush Mourya 21-19, 21-9; Manas Routray bt Mohit Tiwari 21-19, 17-21, 22-20; Pramod Rana-K Manoj Kumar bt Chirag Sen-Deepak Bist 21-19, 21-12).
Semifinals: West Bengal beat Odisha 3-0 (Arup Baidya bt K Manoj Kumar 21-9, 21-11; Sourav Chatterjee bt Pramod K Rana 21-11, 21-5; A Baidya-S Chatterjee bt Kamal Das-CR Satpathy 21-18, 21-11).
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PHOTO: West Bengal shuttlers after winning three titles at the East Zone Badminton Championship in Cuttack on Sept 2, 2012.
