Panaji (Goa): Crowd favourites Mahesh Pauskar and Kishor Raghubans carried their good form into the finals to win the Men’s 45+ doubles title on their home turf, upsetting top seeds Vaman Fallary and Ayoob C.K in straight sets. The finals of the State Masters Badminton championships 2017 organised by Morning Badminton Club in collaboration with Goa Badminton Association and the Sports Authority of Goa were played at Indoor Stadium, Campal, Panaji on Sunday, November 19.

 Former State champion Pankaj Naik came from behind to register a hard-fought win over Seby Ferrao, who had earlier knocked out another former champion Sandip Kanji in the semis. The Men’s 45+ singles title was won by Wilfred Jacques with a convincing win over Oscar Afonso. T.A. Sawant and Zenin Almeida made it 3 titles in a row in the Men’s 55+ doubles category while Sandip Kanji and Kamlesh Kanji emerged winners in Men’s 35+ Doubles. Frederick Fernandes and Manish Pankhania won the Men’s Doubles title in the non-ranked players’ category.

Special prizes were awarded to Edwin Menezes and Edwin Cortez for their good performance during the tournament. Swapnil Nachinolkar, Edwin Menezes, Richard D’ Souza, President, Morning Badminton Club, Agnelo Da Cunha, Secretary, Aniruddha Bhosle, Tournament coordinator, GBA Secretary Sandeep Heble, Hilary Fernandes and Chandrashekar M. G graced the prize distribution function. Following are the finals results: 

Men’s 35+ Singles: Pankaj Naik bt Seby Ferrao 22-20, 21-18

Men’s 35+ Doubles: Sandip Kanji / Kamlesh Kanji bt Pankaj Naik / Parag Chauhan 21-11, 11-21, 21-11

Men’s 45+ Singles: Wilfred Jacques bt Oscar Afonso 21-14, 21-17

Men’s 45+ Doubles: Mahesh Pauskar / Kishor Raghubans bt Vaman Fallary / Ayoob C.K 21-17, 21-18

Men’s 55+ Doubles: T.A. Sawant / Zenin Almeida bt A.S. Kamat / Pradeep Dhond 21-18, 21-17

Men’s Non Ranking Doubles: Frederick Fernandes / Manish Pankhania bt Karan Dhavaskar / Sohan Naik 21-18, 21-15