Ashitha leads Indians into Asian Junior squash semis

Kush Island (Iran), June 21 (IANS) Ashita Bhengra overcame second seed Si Yi Ma of Malaysia 3-1 in the Under-13 section to lead as many as nine Indians into the semi-finals of various age group categories in the 19th Asian Junior individual championship here Wednesday.

Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Iran and Jordan make up the 10 countries that are participating in this event. India are here in full force with the largest contingent of 31 players.

Day Two Wednesday witnessed 23 Indians in the quarter-finals with nine surviving to reach the semi-final stage and guaranteed of going home with a medal.

Another notable Indian performance came from Vijay Kumar Meena, who scrambled to a 3-2 win over 3/4 seed Mohd Kamal of Malaysia after losing the first two games and trailing 4-7 in the fifth.

The results (Indian matches only - all quarter-finals):

GIRLS - U13: Ashita Bhengra bt Si Yi Ma (MAS) 3-1; Nikita Joshi bt Koel Shankar 3-0. U15: Harshit Jawanda bt Jui Kalgutkar 3-0; Aiswarya Bhattacharya lost to Zoe Yuk HanFoo (MAS) 0-3; Adya Advani lost to Mihiiya Methsarani (SRI) 3-0. U17: Uravshi Joshi lost to Pansy Pui Hei Chan (HKG) 0-3; Lakshya Ragavendran bt Uen Shan Choi (HKG) 0-3. U19: Anaka Alankamony bt Ankita Sharma 3-0; Sachika Ingale lost to Ka Po Ho (HKG) 3-0; Aparajitha Balamurukan lost to Ka Hei Chu (HKG) 0-3.

BOYS - U13: Dev Vazirani bt Chaitanya Shah 3-1; Aryan Prekh lost to Hammas A. Tarar (MAS) 0-3. U15: Velvan Senthilkumar lost to Eain Yow NG (MAS) 0-3; Robin Mann bt Ranjit Singh 3-1. U17: Kush Kumar bt Safiuallah Khan (Pak) 3-0; Sandeep Ramachadra lost to Gurshan Singh (MAS) 1-3; Vijay Kumar Meena bt MSM Kamal (MAS) 3-2. U19: Mahesh Mangaonkar bt Erfan Jamshidi (IRI) 3-0.