The second edition of the PNB Metlife Junior Badminton Championship got underway at the Goregaon Sports Club yesterday. The tournament's west zone edition has seen the number of entries rise three-fold to 1200 as compared to 400 participants last year. The U-9 and U-11 age groups have been added to the U-13, U-15 and U-17 categories this year, besides more than 100 underprivileged children kids brought in by SARA Foundation for the four-day tourney.


Tanisha Joshi

Chairperson of SARA Foundation Ashish Srivastav said the idea is to try and give every child access to the game at a young age. "Our aim is to ensure underprivileged children are drawn to the sport at a young age and build interest in the sport the grass-root level. We hope some of these kids will go on to represent the nation in badminton as they grow," said Srivastav.