Samastipur: The main draw matches of Bihar State Junior (Under 19) Ranking Badminton Tournament began here on Sunday. Harsh Raj of Samastipur defeated Atul Raj 21–14, 21–17 of Bettiah, K. Suprasant of Khagaria beat Harsha Mani Singh of Darbhanga 21-18, 21-18, Saharsa’s Anoop Ranjan defeated Vaishali’s Shrey Vardhan 21-17, 21-17, Samastipur’s Ashutosh Kumar Singh defeated Virat Kumar of Buxar 21-10, 21-1, Patna’s qualifier Ranbir Singh beat Gaya’s Shankar Gupta 21-9, 21-10, Jehanabad’s Priyanshu S beat Purnia’s Animesh 22-20, 21-14, Patna’s Aditya Kumar defeated Samastipur. Karthik 21-13, 21-12, Bettiah’s Jayant Arora beat Jehanabad’s Rishu Kumar 21-11, 21-8, Purnea’s Piyush Kumar Babul defeated Madhubani’s Ranjan Kumar Gupta 21-9, 21-17 , Raman Kumar of Samastipur defeated Manish Kumar of Nawada by 21-11, 22-20, Amrit Raj of Muzaffarpur defeated Sampoorna of Sheohar 21-10, 21-11, Rishab Raj Samastipur defeated Raj Aryan Nawada by 21-15, 13-21, 21-13, Mukul Verma Patna beat Anuj Raj Purnia 13-21, 21-10, 21 -14 Majeed Nabi of Darbhanga defeated Sarthak Kumar of Purnia 21-9, 21-11. All the winners entered the round of 32.
In the match played so far in the same round of 32, Tanveer Ahmed of Muzaffarpur defeated Saurav Mishra of Mashubani 21-13, 21-14, Harsh Raj of Samastipur defeated Vineet Kumar of Patna 20-22, 21-11, 21-19. In the second round, Kaushal Raj of Samastipur defeated Kumar Suprasant of Khagaria 10/21, 21-13, 21-18 to enter the next round.
Earlier, the tournament was duly inaugurated at Indoor Hall at Patel Maidan, Samastipur. In the inaugural function, District magistrate Samastipur Yogendra Singh as the chief guest. Samastipur District Police superintendent Hridaykant and general secretary of Bihar Badminton Association K. N. Jaiswal were present on the occasion. Samastipur District Badminton Association secretary Tarun Kumar welcomed the guests. On this occasion, Arbaaz Ansari, international Para badminton player of Bihar was given a warm welcome by all the participants and guests of the competition. Arbaaz has recently brought laurels to the state and the country by getting a bronze medal in the World Para Badminton Championships organised by the World Badminton Association in Thailand.
