Rehan wins silver medal in GCC badminton

By Sports Reporter/DohaRehan Arshad, a 12-year-old talented trainee from Qatar Badminton Academy (QBA), won the under-14 boys singles silver medal at the IBAK GCC Tournament, held in Kuwait recently.The QBA also won the team bronze medal. Arshad knocked out top seed Adarsh Dinesh from the United Arab Emirates in a thrilling semi-final but he failed to sustain his brilliant run and was beaten by second seed Ravi Sajayan of UAE. Arshad lost the opening game to Dinesh in the semi-finals at 16. But he used drop shots and high clears intelligently, forcing his rival to make errors and lose the second game at 20. In the decider, the UAE player was 18-15 ahead but Arshad rallied superbly to gain the lead at the crucial juncture and won the match by taking the third set at 20.In the final, Arshad battled hard. However, his rival Sajayan was much more experienced and managed to triumph in straight games. The QBA team, consisting of Pavan Kumar, Balasubramaniam, Sharon Raphael, Tino Thomas and Teena Mary Cherian, won the third place in the event.Arshad thanked QBA coaches for his achievements. The QBA, which has been training young players since 2008, has posted outstanding results and hopes to continue producing promising players.