A wealth of young badminton talent was on show at the U13 English National Championships as emerging stars made their mark at the National Badminton Centre.
Vedanshi Jain and Nikhil Pulikkottil were the standout talents across singles and doubles as they combined in the mixed doubles final on Sunday to cap off a stellar day on court, taking a 21-9 21-12 win over Etienne Fan and Mutiara Mandala.
Fan and Mandala fought a close semi-final tussle against Arjun Bhattiprolu and Mudra Mayekar, who lost out 23-21 in a tense final game, but their run was curtailed by Jain and Pulikkottil in the final game of the tournament.
Jain’s gold medals started in the girl’s singles category when she stormed to the final with a 21-12 21-16 victory over Chinmayi Kishor and 21-13 21-9 win over Olivia Martin.
She soared to gold with a 21-18 21-14 win over Mayekar in the final.
Image credit: Alan Spink/Action Photography
Just thirty minutes later, she was back on court, this time alongside singles runner-up Mayekar in the girls’ double final against Elsa Mitchell and Daya Variangattil.
The duo grasped the title with a 21-13 21-8 win before Jain joined Nikhil Pulikkottil in the mixed doubles final.
Pulikkottil enjoyed individual success in the open singles too, beginning the final day with a 21-10 21 15 win over Kevin Tao to book his place in the open singles showpiece.
In the final, he claimed a 21-17 21-8 win over Fan to take gold and then joined forces with his competitor in the open doubles final to be crowned U13 national champions
The pair claimed victory over Eden Gough and Aayush Reddy in a 21-16 21-8 win on the final day which rounded off a high-quality weekend of U13s National Championships action.
With special thanks to Yonex, Official Sports Equipment Partner for the English National Championships Series
