Team Victor clinch badminton title

Dubai - Team Victor edged Shuttle Shooters 3-2 in a thrilling final to lift the inaugural Category A Shuttle Time Dubai Badminton Club Championships

Team Victor, inspired by Bahrain champion Heri Setiawan, edged Shuttle Shooters 3-2 in a thrilling final to lift the inaugural Category A Shuttle Time Dubai Badminton Club Championships at the Dubai Sports World facility located at the Dubai World Trade Centre.
Last week Arab Badminton Club squeezed past Badeemonz 3-2 to claim the Category B crown.
Thirty one-year old former world number one doubles player and Olympic gold medallist, Setiawan, played the major role with his contributions in the singles and the men's doubles of the five-match format. The Hova courts, six in number that were put up by the Shuttle Time Dubai drive to increase the popularity of the sport here, was the scene of a packed crowd that occupied every possible inch of the area to get a glimpse of the great battle on show court No. 6 during the weekend's summit round.
Shuttle Shooters took the lead in the first of the five matches, taking out the stretched mixed doubles, before Team Victor fought back in the boys/women's doubles to level the tie 1-1. Setiawan went into action afterwards where he showed his sheer class and artistry to defeat Shuttle Shooter's Rahul Raghu. Shuttle Shooters fought back to win the masters doubles for players above 45 years. Shuttle Shooter's Reji Marapad and Santhosh Kumar beat Team Victor's Riyas Hason and Prabhakaran Menon in a classic 40-minute episode for the scoresheet to read 2all in the match standings. The final men's doubles saw Setiawan and Alfaz Kalam subdue Vinod and Avinash Vishnu 3-1 in the 11-point best-of-five match format.
Former varsities player, Alex Tharakan, captain of Team Victor and a coach here, said: "This is great, fantastic, this is the first time that Shuttle Time Dubai has arranged this Championship and we are very happy to have won. It's been very motivating and challenging to be part of this event, there's a lot of participants, it's good to see the diverse communities come together and it's great for our team to have won the first Club Championship. We loved being part of it!"
Over 120 players from 12 teams have fought it out over the last five weeks for a shot at the inaugural Club Championships title, competing in five categories. After Arab Badminton won the Category Group B title last week, all eyes were on Team Victor and Shuttle Shooters as they battled for the spoils in the Category A final. Both teams in Category A final had come through the three early rounds with two wins and a loss, before triumphing over undefeated teams in the semifinals last week to make the finals.
moni@khaleejtimes.com