KOCHI: It was double delight for local lad M R Arjun at the Sushant Chipalkatti Memorial India Junior International badminton championship in Pune on Sunday. Though he missed Thiruvonam with his family in Kochi, the 17-year-old has made up for it by winning the doubles and mixed doubles titles.
In the doubles final, Arjun, who was paired up with his long-time partner Chirag Shetty, beat Andhra Pradesh duo Krishna Prasad and Karthik Sairai 3-0 (11-8, 11-10, 11-7). The tournament followed a different scoring system that involved five games of 11 points each.
In the mixed doubles event, Arjun and Uttarakhand’s Kuhu Garg defeated Chirag Shetty and Shruti K P, 3-1 (11-6, 11-7, 5-11, 11-8) in the final.
With these victories, the Indian doubles pair of Arjun and Chirag has reaffirmed their chances of a medal at next month’s junior international challenge in Malaysia, crucial for improving their world ranking. A class 12 student of Toc-H Public School in Vytilla, Arjun was born and trained in Ernakulam. His father N Ramachandran is a process engineer at FACT and mother Suja Raj is a teacher at Toc-H.
He started playing badminton at the age of nine at FACT club in 2008, and shifted to the badminton academy at the Regional Sports Centre (RSC) in Kadavanthra three years later.
His coach at RSC, M Mohanachandran, was the one who introduced him to the doubles game. Within a year, he completely shifted his focus to doubles events and started winning titles outside the state.
Arjun, who has been a regular feature in the state team since 2012, won the Badminton Asian Championship with Chirag in 2013. They are also the first and only pair in InBaddia to reach the quarterfinal of the world junior badminton championship in Malaysia this year.
Like any athlete, Arjun’s ultimate goal is to win a gold for India in his pet event at the Olympics. But before that he has to better his world rankings and win the world championship in senior doubles. So he is racing, from one court to another, scouting for room to improve.