SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Sept 8: Jharkhand’s boys and girls delivered their best-ever performance at the Yonex Sunrise East Zone Inter-State Badminton Individual Championship 2025, earning berths in the upcoming national championship.
The tournament concluded on Sunday at the Tata Badminton Training Centre, Jamshedpur, with Jharkhand players claiming a mixed doubles gold, a women’s singles bronze, and a women’s doubles silver.
Key Winners and Medalists
The mixed doubles pair, Sarah Sharma and Safi Akram, clinched the gold medal via a walkover against Uttarakhand’s Gyatri Rawat and Mansa Rawat in the final. Earlier, they had defeated Bengal’s Asmit Agrawal and Shreya Tiwari 21-17, 21-15 in the semifinals.
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In women’s doubles, Ananya Singh and Manisha Rani Tirkey secured the silver after falling to the Uttarakhand duo 21-10, 21-19 in the final.
In women’s singles, Manisha Rani Tirkey, after losing her semifinal match to Uttar Pradesh’s Taranjeet Kaur 21-15, 21-14, won the third-place playoff to claim the bronze and a spot in the national championship.
Additional Jharkhand Contenders
Besides the medalists, Jharkhand’s under-19 mixed doubles pairs, Yogita Bora-Yuvrak Kumar and Harshit Raj-Neeraj Kesri, reached the semifinals, highlighting the depth of talent in the state.
With these results, five players from Jharkhand earned a place in the East Zone team for the national championship — a first in the state’s badminton history.
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Tournament Highlights
The final ceremony saw the presence of prominent figures, including DB Sundra Raman, VPCS of Tata Steel, Sanjay Mishra, General Secretary of the Badminton Association of India, Mukul Choudhary, Chief Sports Officer, Hemant Gupta, and K. Prabhakar Rao, Chairman of the Para Badminton Association of India.
Rao, also Secretary of the Jharkhand Badminton Association, praised the players’ performance and highlighted the successful hosting of the championship in Jamshedpur, emphasizing the region’s sporting talent, fair play, and discipline.
