Arunachal bag bronze on day one of NEZ Badminton C’ship

GANGTOK, Sep 19: Arunachal Pradesh bagged the bronze medal on the opening day of the North East Zone [NEZ] Inter-State Badminton Championship in the team event here in Sikkim on Thursday.
The junior mixed team settled for the bronze after it went down fighting 1-3 to Manipur in the semifinals.
In the first match, Raj Thapa and Napi Tayam lost 5-21, 9-21 to K Priya Devi and M Meiraba Luwang in the mixed doubles. Laa Tukum restored the parity with a win against Bidyasagar Salam in the boys’ singles [21-14, 21-18].
However, Arunachal lost the remaining matches – the girls’ singles and the boys’ doubles – and settled for the bronze.
While Dolma Tamang lost 14-21, 9-21 to Ksh Maheshwari Devi in the girls’ singles, the duo of Sonam Tamang and Biki Lakai went down 13-21 and 7-21 in the boys’ doubles.
The junior team reached the semifinal, beating Sikkim 3-0.
Arunachal crashed out the senior mixed team event in the quarterfinal round, losing 0-3 to Assam.
While Laa Talar lost 11-21, 19-21 to Orijit Chaliha in the men’s singles, Laa Yajum was beaten by Ashmita Chaliha 21-19, 21-7.
The pair of Raja Gupta and Akshay Raito was beaten by Sangram Chutia and Iman Sonowal 21-16, 21-18.
The individual events will begin on Friday.