CHANDIGARH, Dr.Avnish Jolly , NOV 27 : The Panjab University men and women teeams brought laurels by winning silver medald in both categories in the recently concluded All-India Inter-Varsity Badminton Championship at Dibrugarh (Assam) last week.
After gap of five years in women and eight years in men, Panjab University secured the second position. It is for the first time that men and women secured runners-up positions simultaneously in 2008.
Oscar Bansal and Pankaj Nathani remained unbeaten in tournament in singles. They defeated Indian ranked namely Aditya Elongo, Alwin and Shankar Gopan.
Ravi also defeated Vijay Anand of Tamil Nadu in three games in semi finals. Although they lost finals yet it was neck-to-neck fight with opponents. Panajab University boys won two singles and lost to Indian ranked pair Ram C, Vijay and Arun Vishnu, third single was neck to fight but Ravi twisted his foot and in spite of lead in third game he could not win. In doubles Ravi could not perform due to injury and PU went ddown by 2-3 in the finals to Calicut University.
The girls team also performed well and they defeated Tamil Nadu 2-1 in semifinals and lost in finals 0-2 to Banaglore.
Panjab University Sports Director Dr. C.S. Grewal and Assistant Director Rakesh Malik gave a warm welcome to the members of the team on their arrival today. They promed to honour them suitably.
The team: Men: Pankaj Nathani, Oscar Bansal, Ravi Singla, Prateek Sharma, Munish Bansal, Anam and Sunil Malha.
Women: Mannu, Purnica, Shruti and Kanupriya .
Coach: S. Mahajan (Sports Authority of India ). Manager: Dr. S.N. Sharma .