LAHORE: The National Junior Badminton Championships entered its final stage at the Gymnasium Hall of Sports Board Punjab here on Saturday.

In the boys U-18 category, Raja Zulqarnain Haider and Tayyab Shafiq, both of Punjab, will meet in the final, while Amal Munib (Punjab) will take on Alja Tariq (Balochistan) in the girls’ U-18 final.

Zulqarnain entered the final after crushing Muqsit Amir in an all-Punjab semi-final. Zulqarnain, who won the Punjab title earlier this week, won the semi-final with the score lines 21-17, 21-10. Tayyab also made the entry into the final after registering a straight way victory over Abdullah of KP with the scores of 21-17, 21-17.

Amal faced little opposition from Laiba Masoud of Punjab before toppling her with the score of 21-15, 21-17.

Alja fought her way to beat Merab Bhandara of Punjab 21-13, 21-6 to set the date with Amal.

Results:

Boys’ singles U-18 semi-finals: Raja Zulqarnain Haider (Punjab) bt Muqsit Amir (Punjab) 21-17, 21-10; Tayyab Shafiq (Punjab) bt Abdullah (KP) 21-17, 21-17.

Girls’ singles U-18 semi-finals: Alja Tariq (Balochistan) bt Merab Bhandara (Punjab) 21-13, 21-6; Amal Munib (Punjab) bt Laiba Masoud (Punjab) 21-15, 21-17.

Boys’ singles U-14 semi-finals: Saad Amir (Punjab) bt Usaid Gul ((KP) 21-9, 21-12; Umar Khan (KP) bt Malik Ghasif (Punajb) 21-7, 23-21.

Boys’ singles U-16 semi-finals: Qari Adnan (KP) bt Raja Hassan (Punjab) 21-19, 21-15; Raza Ali Adil (Punjab) bt Taimur Khan (KP) 21-15, 21-13.

Boys’ singles U-18 semi-finals: Raja Zulqarnain Haider (Punjab) bt Muqsit Amir (Punjab) 21-17, 21-10; Tayyab Shafiq (Punjab) bt Abdullah (KP) 21-17, 21-17.

Boys doubles U-18 semi-finals: Abdullah-Zubair Shah (KP) bt Anas Muqsit (Punjab) 21-19, 21-17; Raja Zulqarnain Tayyab Shafiq (Punjab) bt Hasheem-Ul-Hassan-Asad Tahir (Punjab) 21-16, 16-21, 21-13.

Girls’ singles U-16 semi-final: Sumaiya Tariq (Balochistan) bt Mehr-Un-Nisa (Punjab) 21-5, 21-5; Zainay Chaudhry (Punjab) bt Dina Shahzad (Islamabad) 21-18, 21-9.

Girls’ singles U-18 semi-final: Alja Tariq (Balochsitan) bt Merab Bhandara (Punjab) 21-13, 21-6; Amal Munib (Punjab) bt Laiba Masoud (Punjab) 21-15, 21-17.

Girls’ doubles U-18 semi-finals: Laiba Masoud/Amal Munib (Punjab) bt Maryam Shahzadi/Merum Chaudhry (Punjab) 21-4, 21-6; Alja Tariq-Masooma (Balochistan) bt Dina Shahzad/Zartasha Khan (Islamabad).

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2018