Despite our incredible love for cricket, badminton remains a popular sport among Indians. And the sport got a big boost recently when India’s badminton team won the men’s finals beating 14-time champions Indonesia, registering a historic win at the 2022 Thomas Cup. The moment made every Indian around the world proud.
The sport has a fair following among Kiwi-Indians too and Telugu Badminton Club of Canterbury is one of the leading flag-bearers for the sport’s lovers in the Canterbury region.
On June 4, over the weekend of the Queen’s birthday celebration, Telugu Badminton Club of Canterbury(TBCC) hosted one of South Island’s biggest badminton tournaments. Featuring 96 players, 48 teams which competed over 6 divisions, TBCC Winter 2022 Doubles Open Tournament was a huge draw among Christchurch badminton lovers with hundreds of people cheering the players. And you would be wrong to think that the tournament was restricted to players from only ethnicity. In fact, professional and social players from various ethnicities and various ages participated in the tournament which had a total of 112 matches with 245 games played.
Jasper Wang and Jason Zhang won the players of the tournament award.
The winners are
Division 1
Gold - John Morahan & Anu Ahuja
Silver - Roberto Bray-Descalzo & Sam Loan
Bronze - Gopinath Rajarathinam & John Graham
Division 2
Gold - Ajesh Jose & Andie Currie
Silver - Anil Kumar & Sundeep Daggubati
Bronze - Anand Satheesh & Arjun Shashidharan
Division 3
Gold - Dhaval Lamghare & Harish Bharadwaj
Silver - Amit Sodhi & Jess Davidson
Bronze - Chathura Samith & Ruwinda Herath
Division 4
Gold - Baxter Lin & Logan Barnes
Silver - Eben Anil & Anil Cheriyakudy
Bronze - Ridhan Gnaanash & Senthil Arumugam
Division 5
Gold - Jasper Wong & Jason Zhang
Silver - Hemachandran Rajamanickam & Monty Kumar
Bronze - Vishal Singh & Sujith Kunnil Sasi
Division 6
Gold - Benit Koshi & Joffre Abraham
Silver - Sandip Gadhavi & Bhavin Chauhan
Bronze - Vatsal Talati & Thirupathy Vairavan
Awards were presented to the winners by the sponsors of the tournament, Mr. Vivek Srivastava, Senior sales consultant-Generation homes Christchurch, Mr. Dhairyadip Mahida-Director, Details King New Zealand, and Mr. Dhaval Lamghare-Harcourts Vision Residential sales consultant.
Started in 2017, Telugu Badminton Club of Canterbury has around 140 members with more than 80 of these playing on a regular basis. TBCC’s President Rajeswar Peddisetti has been a key figure in bringing the lovers of badminton together and providing a platform for them to display and hone their skills.
It must have been quite a challenge to plan and organise a tournament of this scale but Rajeswar’s passion for the sport and experience in organising other tournaments came handy in making this possible.?
Peddisetti says, “It is great to have an event that provides equal opportunity for all the participants to excel, which in turn will help to grow badminton as a mainstream sport in New Zealand.”
“It was heartening to see tremendous support from the players and the visitors. It has inspired us to organise more such events. I also would like to thank all our sponsors for coming forward and supporting this tournament.”
If you live in the region and want to become a member of the club, you can contact them for more details.
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