NARAYAN Ramdhani produced a spirited performance when he faced high-ranking Lino Munoz in the Round of 16 battle, at the XXIV PAM AM Individual Championships on Friday evening in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

The 22-year-old was excellent in his first senior PAN AM event and had made it through two rounds before he lost to the 5th seeded Munoz.
After drawing a bye in the Round of 64 in the badminton competition, Ramdhani was able to get past Barbadian Shae Martin 21-18, 21-12 in the Round of 32.
In his Round of 16 battle, Ramdhani, who is studying in Canada, performed well against 30-year-old Munoz, who competed in the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil and has a string of PAN AM Games and Central American and Caribbean Games medals under his belt.

In the end, Ramdhani succumbed 16-21, 15-21.
Coach of the team, Gokarn Ramdhani said he was elated with his son’s performance.
“His performance was excellent considering it’s his first tournament after a year and a half. His attendance is mainly to get ranking points to qualify for Olympics.”

The senior Rahdhani pointed out that his son was also using the senior event as a springboard to get seeded, since the championships attracted a number of world champions.
The young man would now have to wait to see his progression.

“He can’t be seeded during the tournament. Seeding depends on ranking points. So we can’t know this until a next tournament come around,” Gokarn explained.
Along with Narayan, his sister, Priyanna also competed at the Championships.

She lost to Nairoby Abigail Jimenez – one of the top female badminton players in the Dominican Republic.
That game ended 21-8, 21-12.
Prior to Narayan’s round of 16 battle, the siblings had competed in the Mixed Doubles, but went down to home players Antonio Emanuel Ortiz and Alejandra Jose Paiz Quan 21-13, 21-13.