KOZHIKODE: Aparna Balan and Arun Vishnu, hailing from Kozhikode, won the mixed doubles title in the Tata Open All India Senior Ranking Badminton tournament that concluded in Mumbai the other day. In the final, the duo defeated the V Diju (PSPB) and M Ashwani Ponnappa (Kar) 21-14, 14-21, 21-19.
Aparna, partnering Shruthi Kurien (PSPB), completed a double after winning the women’s doubles beating Nitya Sosale (Kar) and Pradnya Gadre (Mah) 21-18 and 21-11. However, Arun, partnering K Tharun (AP), had settled for the second place in the men’s doubles losing to the country’s top-rated duo of Sanave Thomas (Ker) and Roopesh Kumar(PSPB) 21-16, 14- 21, 10-21.
Arun and Aparna will represent India in the Australian and the Switzerland Open Grand Prix tournaments beginning on July 23 and 28 respectively.Besides, they will also take part in the World Championship to be held at Hyderabad from August 10 to 16.
Both players are currently members of the training camp at the Gopichand Badminton Academy, Hyderabad, under national coach Pullela Gopi Chand for the 2010 Commonwealth Games scheduled to be held at Delhi. Earlier, the duo had received coaching from Kerala Sports Council coach Nasar and Sports Authority of India coach Ganguly Prasad.
Selection trials
The trials to select the Kerala team to participate in the 9th Federation Cup National Junior Athletics Championship will be held at the Maharaja’s College Stadium here on July 11. According to the new norms by the Kerala Athletics Association, only those athletes with the association’s registration number can participate.