GUYANA’S top male and female badminton players Narayan Ramdhani and Priyanna Ramdhani suffered mixed fortunes at the Junior Pan American badminton championships currently underway at the Centro de Alto Rendimiento in Lima, Peru. According to a release, both players are faced with high altitude and cold conditions as it’s Peru’s winter period but four-time Pan American medallist Priyanna Ramdhani started in great form by winning her first-round matches in both Under-15 Girls’ singles and Girls’ doubles.
In the Girls’ singles competition, Priyanna Ramdhani defeated Beien Trocoso of Chile 21-11, 16-21, 21-16, while in the Girls’ doubles she reached the quarterfinals, teaming up with Sara Michelle Barrios Chiong of Guatemala to defeat Andera Flores and Ariana Airi Moromisato of Peru 21-12, 21-8
Narayan Ramdhani seeded No.2 in the singles draw, due to a muscle injury, lost his match to Nicardo Reid of Jamaica.
According to the release, Narayan won the first game 21-14, but during the second game, leading at 14-6, he picked up a muscle injury and lost 21-6.
In the third game, although he tried mentally to get back in the game his physical injury prevented him from achieving success.
Continuous training for him was hampered due to the unavailability of both playing halls (Cliff Anderson Sports Hall and the National Gymnasium) due to the CBU Basketball Championships).
The release pointed out that at these high level tournaments like Pan Am, you have to be fully prepared especially when you have to play at the highest level against world-ranked players in the Under-19 events.
The next match Narayan had to play later in the evening was the Mixed doubles with his sibling, Priyanna, but again he could not overcome his injury and lost to Sane Wilson and Alana Bailey of Jamaica: 21-11, 21-11
The tournament continued yesterday with Priyanna Ramdhani set to do battle with Adriana Bernales Pinillos in singles and Narayan Ramdhani and Shea Martin of Barbados playing against Ailton Josue Correa Martinez and Francisco Rafael Trevino of Mexico in doubles.
The Guyana Badminton Association would like to thank the Guyana Olympic Association and National Sports Commission, Mr Yesu Persaud of Demerara Bank, Mr Philip DaSilva, Mr Neville Osman and Continental Group of Companies (SUNBURST) for their contributions to help make Guyana’s participation possible.