New Delhi, July 25: The supremacy of Airports Authority of India evident once again when they retained the Youth Girls trophy, beating Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) 3-1 in AAI 46^th All India Inter-Institutional Championships at the SMS Indoor Stadium here this morning.

Thus the AAI girls have qualified to take the lone spot available in the Junior and Youth Nationals to be held in Gujarat in December. This will be the team’s second successive appearance in the Nationals.

In the four-team round-robin league, it was imperative for the teams to top to be able to make the cut. And the AAI girls, led by Ayhika Mukherjee, Archana Girish Kamath, Sreeja Akula, had a tough job at hand when they began the campaign yesterday. After having posted wins against the Railways and Air India, they had the toughest today against the PSPB girls who were equally good but lacked in experience.

Ayhika did the star turn for the hosts as she gave a rousing start despite being in some trouble against Varuni Jaiswal to win 3-2 (11-7, 9-11, 11-7, 5-11, 11-3). Archana accounted for Amrutha Pushpak 3-1 (11-7, 11-13, 11-8, 13-11) but Sreeja Akula could not measure up to PSPB’s Yashini Sivashankar and went down 0-3 (9-11, 10-12, 1-11). However, Ayhika in her reverse singles put it beyond PSPB, in spite of dropping a game, to outwit Amrutha 3-1 (11-9, 11-8, 7-11, 11-9).

AAI, which has a very good scholarship schemes, encourages young talented players before they are being pouched by others as they grow in stature. All these players who have been turning out for AAI in the last few years were recruited under one such scheme and it is paying the institution rich dividends.

Incidentally, these very girls are also competing in the women’s team event as AAI doesn’t have a separate team.

PSPB boys keep Youth title

New Delhi, July 25: The supremacy of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board was in question when their Youth Boys had real starting trouble in the last league match against Air India in the AAI 46th All India Inter-Institutional Championships at the SMS Indoor Stadium here this morning.

But, luckily for them, Birdie Boro considered the weak link, resurrected the team’s fortune and it helped them retain the Youth Boys title when they finally managed to beat Air India 3-2 and book their ticket to Gujarat for the Junior and Youth Nationals.

With their backs to the wall, after being down 0-2, Boro took on Mandar Hardikar, AI’s third singles player. Fortunately for PSPB, it worked as Boro blanked out his opponent 11-2, 11-9, 11-9 to leave things in the hands of Utkarsh Guupta and Abhishek Yadav.

In the morning, the Petroleum boys had the worst possibde start when Utkarsh Gupta just about managed a game against Siddhesh Pande, reigning junior national champion, while losing the first rubber q10-12, 11-8, 9-11, 9-11. With an unexpected start, the going became even tougher for PSPB when Abhishek Yadav lost to Sanish Ambekar 1-3 (11-8, 6-11, 4-11, 9-11).

From there the resurgence of PSPB came about as everything hinged on the next singles between Birdie Boro and Mandar Hardikar which the former won hands down. Then Utkarsh defeated Sanish 14-12, 11-5, 11-6 before Abhishek completed the task, accounting for Siddesh with a 4-11, 11-5, 11-2, 12-10 verdict to heave a sigh of relief.

Final Position:

Youth Boys: 1. PSPB, 2. AAI, 3. Railways, 4. Air India.  

Youth Girls: 1. AAI, 2. RSPB, 3. PSPB, 4. Air India.