Lakshya leads charge at Markham in mixed team and individual events
World Junior No 4 Lakshya Sen will be shouldering the burden of India's fortune at the Li Ning BWF World Junior Badminton Championships 2018, beginning at Markham (Canada) from Monday.
The 23-member squad will look up to Lakshya, the reigning Asian Junior champion, to spearhead the Mixed Team's podium charge for the first-ever medal from the Worlds since it was included in the year 2000. The 14-day championships, starting with team action continues until November 10 and will be followed by individual events, beginning from November 11 to 18.
India, who are seeded No 5 and placed in group E, are clubbed with Algeria, Faroe Islands, Kenya and Sri Lanka, giving the Indian squad a great opportunity to make it to the quarterfinals, their first priority. However, they will be wary of the only other seeded team in the group is Algeria, four places behind them at No 9.
The Canada world event is the opportunity that most of the current junior crop, including Kiran George, Priyanshu Rajawat, Alap Mishra among boys and Malvika Bansod and Gayatri Gopichand in girls, would like to use as the springboard to enhance their reputation.
There are 41 teams in fray and they have been divided into eight groups of five teams each with top group split into A1 and A2, each having three teams. The group matches will be played on round-robin league basis with the group leader making the cut for Stage II, which is the knockout round.
India's best show so far at the World Juniors has been Saina Nehwal winning the only Gold at the 2008 edition when it was held in India.