Junior top seeds, gear up for Khelo India School Games titles

Malvika Bansod, Aakarshi Kashyap, Dhruv Rawat and Amit Rathore are given top seeds honour in the badminton singles draw in the inaugural Khelo India Schools Games. The young guns would be competing at the India Gandhi Indoor Stadium from February 5th to 8th.

Ranked third in the Badminton Association of India U19 list, Dhruv Rawat from Sharda Public School, Almora, will enter School Games with a bit of international experience.

Madhya Pradesh's Rathore, seeded second, is hoping to challenge the top-seeded Rawat, who got the better of him when they last played an under-17 match and keep the National under-17 champion Maisnam Meiraba at bay this time around.

Rathore hopes to produce a good performance when he revives his on-court rivalry with these lads.

Malvika Bansod, the third ranked, has recentlly won All India Senior Ranking badminton tournament in Bareilly, which led her to the great run to the KISG. She said, “I have great expectations from Khelo India. It is a good opportunity and quite a big event. It feels positive to be the top seed and shows that you've been selected best, that you have to deliver. It is indeed a big boost and I know I have to perform well.

Aakarshi, who too had great year of 2017, picked a double crown in Nationals Junior Championships in Guwahati in December in the U17 and U19 categories.

She defended her under-17 title by beating Bansod. In the Nationals Championships a month earlier, Aakarshi drew attention by giving a fight to 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal in the quarter-finals.

She managed all these achievements without a full-time coach, training all by herself in Bhilai until recently but will soon make her way to Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy in Bengaluru.