Khandepar (Goa): The Goa Badminton Association’s Annual Award function 2016-17 took place on Sunday, May 28 at Sandeep Khadeparkar’s Eco Farm and Resort, Khandepar. Several Badminton players, parents and enthusiasts attended the day long gathering.
While Margao Shuttlers Club was adjudged the best club of the year 2016-17, Mapusa Shuttlers emerged runners-up in the Best Club category. Other notable winners in the club category were Panjim Badminton Club (Best PR & Tournament coverage), Evening Badminton Group (Best Training Programme – Certification clinic for Umpires), Ponda Shuttlers (Best Felicitation Programme), Margao Shuttlers Club (Best Coaching Programme – With Ex India International Ritupurna Kulkarni), Antruz Arts & Sports Academy (Best Taluka Tournament) and Mapusa Shuttlers (Best New Club).
In the outstanding players of the year awards, Anura Prabhu Desai was awarded the best Women Player of the Year while Prateek Mahajan won the best Men Player of the Year award. The Best Doubles Players of the Year awards were won by Navneet Nasnodkar and Sunny Sawant (Men) and Anushka Kuvelkar and Pranjal Chimulkar (Women). Anjana Kumari (Junior Girls) and Aashrun Gautam (Junior Boys) were adjudged Best Junior Singles Players while Best Junior Doubles Players of the Year awards were won by Dhruv Angle and Emilia Silveira.
Avita Bandodkar (Women’s) and Vaman Fallary (Men’s) were the winners in the Veteran’s age group category awards.
Fair Play awards for Best Disciplined Sports Persons were won by Floyd Araujo and Lydia Barreto.
Upcoming Player of the Year award was won by Sushil Nayak, Rudra Dukle, Arshia Gautam and Yasmin Sayed.
Anjana Kumari and Manjushri Raut won the Best Performance at Nationals award.
There were Special Awards for contributions towards Badminton, which were awarded to- Narahar Thakur (Shuttlers Club), Peter Tellis (Ponda Badminton club), Custodio Araujo (Panjim Badminton Club), Richard Vaz (Rich Builders) and Gaurish Dhond (Dhond’s Sports Club)
Special recognition awards were won by Roy Ataide and Vinayak Kamat (Coaching), Managers – Anil Painguinkar, Aniket Shenai, Laxmikant Kenaudekar, and Contributions – Vaman Fallary, Sanjay Bhobe and Nilesh Nayak.
In addition, other special recognition awards, and Ranking and Promising Player medals were presented to top ranked players and others who had excelled / contributed at State and Taluka / District levels.
Goa Badminton Association (GBA) officials Narahar Thakur, Sandeep Heble, Richard De Souza, Peter Tellis, Anil Painguinkar, Sandeep Khandeparkar, Luciano Soares, Justo D’ Costa, Leonel Fernandes, Santosh Prabhu Desai and Agnel D’ Cunha graced the awards function.
Team TNV
