The four- day All India Doubles Ranking Badminton Tournament, organised in the memory of the social activist Satyapal Kumar by his two sons, kicked off on Wednesday at City Sports Complex, Bhalla College. Qualifying matches were held for nearly 250 players who have come from across the country while the main matches would be held in the next three days.
The organising secretary of the tournament Neeraj Kumar who himself is a Badminton player said, “I always felt that the holy city must host some national level sports championship which would encourage the local and the state level players to participate.
The Uttarakhand Badminton Association having assigned the responsibility to our district association, we are funding the tournament from providing the players with lodging and other facilities to giving them the prizes. The winners would get Rs 2 lakh.”
Many players from the state, including Kuhu Garg, Himanshu Tiwari and Aparna Dutta are participating in the matches, said Anurag Gupta, a member of the joint organising committee. “Matches would be held in the category of open mixed doubles, women doubles, men’s doubles and 32 main draws. All the entries being taken by Badminton Association of India, no direct entry would be allowed,” he added.
Ajay Kumar, the host of the tournament, said that BAI would send its own chief referees, controllers and inspectors. Arrangements have also been made for direct telecast on Youtube and Sports flashes, he added.
lauding the efforts of the district badminton association, the state urban development minister Madan Kaushik said, “Badminton being a very popular game in the country, we are happy that the national tournament is being held in Haridwar in which players from 30 states are participating. We are also gearing up for the 2018 National Games which is going to be held in the State.”