Being different is a challenge and to make it count is an achievement.
Four differently abled men from Kerala, who successfully competed in the Para National Games held at Bellary, Karnataka last week know it better.
Kerala’s Neeraj Baby George registered two victories in the standing lower than knee (StL 2A) category in the National badminton championships for the differently abled at the Malleswaram Association courts, here on Friday.
Neeraj first defeated Girish Sharma (Maharashtra) and then easily brushed aside the challenge of Karnataka’s Vybhav Tripathi.
The results: Men: Singles: StL-2A: Neeraj Baby George (Ker) bt Girish Sharma (Mah) 16-21, 21-18, 21-18; Girish bt Vybhav Tripati (Kar) 21-11, 21-15; Neeraj bt Vybhav 21-14, 21-11.
StD-2: K.G. Prabhu (Kar) bt Mark Dharmai (Mah) 21-16, 21-10; C.S. Baiju (Ker) bt Mark Dharmai (Mah) 21-12, 21-9; Prabhu bt Baiju 21-13, 21-19. StL-3A: Capt. S.K. Sangwan (Kar) bt Maj. S.P. Singh (AP) 21-16, 17-21, 21-18.
StL-1: Quarterfinals: Himagiru (AP) bt Divesh Patak (Bih) 14-21, 21-15, 21-13; Siddanna (Kar) bt K. Gopinath (Kar) 21-13, 21-8; Dillawar Rao (Andaman) bt Bul Bul (WB) 21-7, 21-13.
Earlier rounds: K.R. Ranjit (Ker) bt Y. Ramteke (Cht) 10-21, 21-10, 21-19; Sahajahan Bulbul (WB) bt Shivaraja Singh (Del) 19-21, 21-17, 21-8; K. Gopinath (Kar) bt Sampath Kumar (TN) 21-5, 21-4; Divyesh Kumar Pathak (Bih) bt Variner Sharma (Pun) 21-8, 21-3; Y. Himagiri (AP) bt Ajay Pal (Pun) 21-2, 21-4; Pramod Bhagat (Ori) bt K.R. Ranjit (Ker) 21-10, 21-12.
Juniors: StU-4&5: Aswini Kumar Nayak (Ori) bt Satti Babu (AP) 22-24, 21-17, 21-19; Babu bt T. Deepak (TN) 21-8, 21-14; Amrinder Singh (Pun) bt Deepak 21-19, 21-12.
Women: Singles: StD-6(1): G. Sarita (AP) bt G. Swapna (AP) 25-23, 21-7 .