After quality badminton action, the pair of Debahuti Lahon and Maini Boruah from Guwahati triumphed over Delhi’s Sana Verma and Ekta Joshi in the finals of 3rd edition of Red Bull Shuttle Up in straight sets 11-8; 11-10.
Earlier, high-intensity qualifying rounds were held across 5 cities.
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The national finals of the 3rd edition of Red Bull Shuttle Up, an exclusive women’s doubles tournament, took place at the Thyagaraj Sports Complex in Delhi.
The winning duo from Guwahati has been serial winners at the junior level with Maini Boruah being part of the team that won bronze at the Senior Nationals Badminton Championship in 2019.
She has also been a U-19 doubles champion and mixed doubles silver medalist in the North East Zonals Championship 2019.
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Her partner Debahuti has been a school national champion and was ranked third in the doubles all India ranking in 2019.
Pairs of Debahuti Lahon & Malini Boruah from Guwahati, Shubhangi Majumder & Ramsha Farooqui from Mumbai, Afnan Zareen & Arun Komal from Hyderabad, Nalini Malik & Khushboo Shah from Chandigarh and Sana Verma and Ekta Joshi from Delhi qualified through their respective city qualifiers battled it out at the national finals of Red Bull Shuttle Up 2021.
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Red Bull Shuttle up Qualifiers were held across 5 cities – Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Delhi, Mumbai and Guwahati from 18th September to 30th October 2021, with winning pairs from each qualifier to compete at the national finals.
With the growing popularity of the sport, be it viewership or participation, the tournament aims to further boost and improve participation and popularity amongst aspiring women players.
India’s ace women’s doubles shuttler and Red Bull athlete Ashwini Ponnappa said, “It is very encouraging to see so many talented women badminton players being part of the Red Bull Shuttle Up National Finals.”
“It has always been my ambition to promote badminton as a sport in India, especially for the women. It’s great to be associated with brands like Red Bull that create such platforms and gives wings to aspiring talents.”
“It’s been a great journey with Red Bull Shuttle Up and I only see it growing in the years to come,” he added.
The pair of Debahuti Lahon and Maini Boruah from Guwahati, the winners of Red Bull Shuttle Up National Finals, said, “We are delighted to win the Red Bull Shuttle Up National Finals. We prepared really well for this tournament.”
“It is always a great experience to play against the best teams in the country and do well. It is great to see brands like Red Bull supporting aspiring women badminton players like ourselves and giving us the platform to showcase our talents,” they added.
Open exclusively for women above the age of 16, all matches are played on a knockout basis where all pairs play a best of 3 sets with 21 points (rally points).
Each pair, with prior notification to the referee, can call for a super point once in a set. By calling for a super point, the pair will get 2 points if they win that particular point. There will be no deduction of points if the pair loses that point.