Pune: 84th National Badminton Championship from Feb 22, Over 450 shuttlers will be seen in action

Pune, 13th February 2023: The 84th Senior National Badminton Championship will be held in Shiv Chhatrapati sports complex, Mhalunge-Balewadi between 22-28 February. This tournament is jointly organised by the Pune District & Metropolitan Badminton Association (PDMBA) and Pune Municipal Corporation, and sponsored by Dr Cyrus Poonawala and Venky’s.

This prestigious tournament was held in the city in 1997 and Pune is hosting this tournament after a gap of 25 years. Along with Olympic medallist Saina Nehwal, all top shuttlers will be seen in action, informed PDMBA president Aniruddha Deshpande during a press interaction. PDMBA secretary Ranjeet Natu, Rajiv Bagh, Sarang Lagu, Ketki Deshpande, Sudhanshu Medsiker were also present on this occasion.

Dr Cyrus Poonawala and Venky’s are the main sponsors of this tournament. Over 450 players have confirmed their participation, which includes top shuttlers like Saina Nehwal, HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen, Satvik Sairadj P Kashyap, Malvika Bansod, Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly. Seven teams will fight for the team championship along with the individual championships.

The senior nationals were held in 2018 and Saurabh Verma had emerged victorious after beating Lakshya Sen, while in the women’s category, Saina Nehwal lifted the trophy. She had beaten PV Sindhu. In the men’s doubles’, Pranav Chopra and Chirag Shetty had prevailed over the pair of Arjun MR and Shlok Ramchandran in the summit clash. The women’s doubles champions were Shikha Gautam and Ashwini Bhatt, as they had defeated Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S. Ram. In the mixed doubles’ Manu Atri and Manisha KJ were the winners. The team championship was won by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) by beating the Railways.

The ’Poona App’ will be the game changer
A special innovative mobile has been created for this tournament. For the first time, such an app will be used in the national championship. This app will provide all information and also the live coverage of the tournament. This will hugely benefit the media persons. Along with the daily schedule, all scores, and results will be provided by the app.

5-star arrangement for the players
All top players from the country are participating in this tournament, hence we will be providing them with the best facilities. They will be staying in a 5-star hotel. For the first time, such luxurious accommodation has been provided for the national tournament, said Natu.
Over 150 volunteers are working day and night and have left no stone unturned. The count-down events held in different parts of the city have also created a buzz, and we are hoping for a huge crowd during the tournament, he added.