Buenos Aires: Shuttler Lakshya Sen recovered from a game deficit to beat Japanese Kodai Naraoka 14-21, 21-15, 24-22 to enter the final of men’s singles badminton competition of Youth Olympic Games here. Sen will now meet Li Shifeng of China in the final.
Sen, the reigning Asian junior champion, lost the first game but came back stronger to beat Naraoka in the next two to pocket the semifinal match Thursday night.
After winning the second game without much fuss, the 17-year-old has to fight neck-to-neck with none of the two players giving an inch. The game went into the duece and Sen eventually won it after a 36-minute tussle.
If Sen wins the final, he will become the first Indian gold medallist shuttler in the Youth Olympics after Prannoy Kumar had won silver in the inaugural Youth Olympics in Singapore in 2010.
Hockey teams advance
The Indian U-18 women’s team defeated South Africa 5-2 in their final Pool A encounter to enter quarterfinals while their male counterparts entered the semifinals of five-a-side hockey competition in Youth Olympics Games here. Mumtaz Khan (2nd, 17th), Reet (10th), Lalremsiami (12th) and Ishika Chaudhary (13th) scored for India.
India took the lead inside two minutes through Mumtaz. The South Africans had their chances and made the most of the opportunity with Kayla de Waal equalising in the 10th minute. However, Reet scored five second later to maintain the supremacy going into the halftime.
Lalremsiami, scored the third for the women in blue before Iskika Chaudhary pumped in the fourth a minute later. Mumtaz added the final of the night three minutes from the final hooter for India before Angela Welham scored in the final minute for South Africans which wasn’t enough.
Meanwhile, the men’s team defeated Poland 4-2 to enter the last four stage. Shivam Anand (first, eighth), Maninder Singh (third) and Sanjay (17th) scorted for Indian Eryk Bembenek (16th) and Michal Nowakowski (18th) netted for Poland.