Malvika adds singles gold to make clean sweep at SGFI Badminton Nationals

NAGPUR: The New Year got off to a sensation start for Malvika Bansod. In the first week of 2017 itself, the 15-year-old grabbed two gold medals at the prestigious tournament.
After guiding Maharashtra to triumph in the team championship, the talented teenage southpaw made a clean sweep by claiming the U-17 girls singles crown at the 62nd Sports Games Federation of India (SGFI) Badminton National tournament for U-17 boys and girls which concluded at the Indoor Stadium in Kadappa, Andhra Pradesh, on Sunday.
Malvika, a Standard X student of Centre Point School, Dabha, dished out outstanding performance and clinched the U-17 girls singles title by shocking National champion VS Varshini of Tamil Nadu in straight games.
Displaying wonderful all-round game Malvika grounded her opponent with a facile 22-20, 21-14 win. It was second successive win for Malvika over Varshini. In the team event final too, Malvika got the better of her higher-ranked TN opponent.
Earlier in the quarterfinal, Malvika, a trainee of Kiran Makode, defeated Saie Nandurkar of Nashik, while in the semis she prevailed over Pune's Tanishka Deshpande 21-9, 21-11.
Malvika gives credit of her success to her coach Kiran Makode, her parents Dr Prabodh and Dr Trupti Bansod. Principal of CPS Dabha Radhika Mehra congratulated Malvika for her success.
"I am really happy to win both the gold medals on offer here. Beating Varshini twice in as many days gave me lot of satisfaction. It's a good start to the year. I am looking forward to continue my good performance rest of the year," said Malvika.