LAHORE: The team and individual events started on the opening day of the 55th National Badminton Championships at Gymnasium Hall of Punjab University New Campus here on Friday.

Seventeen men and eleven women teams of departments and provinces are competing in the championships featuring more than 200 male and female players from across the country.

Wapda are defending all the titles — individual men and women, and male and female team events. Awais Zahid and Mahoor Shahzad are the reigning champions in men’s and women’s singles, respectively. The finals in the championships will be played on Jan 11.

The teams participating in the championships include Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Islamabad, AJK, Wapda, NBP, SNGPL, PTCL, KPT, PMAD, Railways, Army, Police and Fata.

On the first day, Punjab, Army, SNGPL, Police, KPT and HEC won their respective team event matches.

Fourteen matches in the men’s singles category were also decided.

Results:

Team event (men’s):

Punjab bt Balochistan 3-0:

Gohar Azam bt Shujaat Ali 21-7, 21-17; Ahmar-Raja Zulqarnain bt Shujaat Ali-Ali Akbar 21-10, 21-8; Ahmer Jalal bt Ali Akbar 21-5, 21-14

Army beat Islamabad 3-0:

Ihtisham bt Junaid 21-17, 21-10; Ali-Yousuf bt Shahab-Junaid 21-18, 21-18; Ahmed Khalid bt Shahab Khan 21-10, 21-18

SNGPL bt Railways 3-0:

Anjum Bashir bt Mohammad Omer 21-5, 21-13; Mohammad Ali Larosh-Noman bt Zohaib-Nabeel 21-12, 14-21, 21-17; Ahmed Tariq bt Nadeem Sarwar 21-16, 21-12

Police bt Sindh 3-0:

Haroon-ur-Rehman bt Maaz Ali 21-15, 21-18; Tahir Khan-Masood bt Qasim-Hamza 21-11, 21-11; Tahir Khan bt Mawan 21-4, 21-8

KPT beat Pakistan Military Account 3-0:

Ahsan Rana bt Mohammad Ali 21-8, 21-6; Tariq-Asad bt Asif-Abdul Salam 21-12, 21-9; Mohtsim Jamil bt Asim Alvi 21-11, 21-12

HEC bt Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 3-1:

Hamza (KP) bt Ammar Masood (HEC) 17-21, 22-20, 21-9; Uaakeph-Muteeb (HEC) bt Tehseen-Basit (KP) 21-17, 20-22, 21-14; Muqeet Tahir (HEC) bt Farzal Rehman (KP) 21-13, 21-15; Ammar Masood-Muqeet Tahir (HEC) bt Hayyan-Fazal Rehman (KP) — walkover

Men’s singles:

Qualification round: Nabeel (Railways) bt Muneeb (Lahore) 21-12; Hamza (Sindh) bt Imran Ali (Balochistan) 21-15; Musaddaq (Army) bt Mutaba (Chakwal) 21-18; Ariz (Gujranwala) bt Abdul Mannan (Lahore) 21-19; Yousuf (Army) bt Shahab (Islamabad) 21-17; Hayyan (KP) bt Farzan bin Khalid (Silakot) 21-1; Usama (Punjab) bt Raza Ali (Lahore) 21-11; Ahmed Janjua (Army) bt Hafiz Wasif (Punjab) 21-13; Faizan Ahmed (Wapda) bt Mohammad Sultan (Punjab) 21-17; Rohan Haseeb (Gujranwala) bt Abdul Wahab (Samundri) 21-10; Zunain (New Khan) bt Shoaib (Army) 21-7; Ozair (KP) bt Saqib (Lahore) 21-4; Zohaib (Police) bt Awais (Railways) 21-16; Mohtasim (Punjab) bt Shahzad (Railways) 21-14.

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2018