Nehru impresses at schools’ badminton

Nehru Primary School team manager Avinesh Chand was proud of his team’s performance in the first day of the Badminton Fiji Secondary Schools tournament at Suva’s FMF Gymnasium yesterday.

This is after his small team of three players ranked 11 managed to qualify for the quarterfinals in their first appearance in the tournament.

“Badminton is their passion and they played well in the preliminary rounds to qualify for the quarterfinals,” Chand said.

“It was a close loss in the quarterfinal.”

The Nehru badminton team also lost in the fifth to eighth place ranked match.

“They’ll be playing in the seventh to eighth place ranked match. There are 11 teams in the team’s competition, and they’ll be ranked seventh or eighth.”

Chand added that he was pleased that his players provided stiff competition against older and taller opponents.

“The boys have really played but they were playing under the pressure of the crowd,” he said.

“We’ll improve on it and conduct more training to be ready for the Fiji badminton primary school’s tournament.”

Chand highlighted the challenge of recruiting a minimum of eight players to form a team for the tournament.

“We only had three from Nehru, so it was difficult looking for players. Badminton have set a platform in schools to recruit players in the development team and Fiji team in the Under-16, 17 and 19.”

Chand was impressed that his players were strong and fast against other teams during the preliminary rounds.

“I would like to thank Mrs. Maria Nuku for her massive support towards the team,” he said.

The Nehru team will participate in the U15 individuals’ competition today.

“I’d like to invite Nehru Primary School fans to support the boys in the next two days. There’s an exciting matchup of games coming up because it’s individual match so the boys will showcase their individual talents.”

The competition continues today at the FMF Gymnasium.