Kiran George Bags Silver at Badminton Asia U17 Junior Championships

16 year old Kiran George, a trainee of Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy, did India proud by bagging the silver medal in the Under-17 Boys Singles category at the Badminton Asia Youth Championships which concluded at Kudus, Indonesia on Sunday. In the finals Kiran went down fighting to the top seeded Kunlavut Vitidasrn of Thailand 21-17, 15-21, 12-21. On the way to the Finals the unseeded Kerala lad got the better of Takuma Kawamoto of Japan in the Pre-Quarterfinals 21-13, 21-15 and beat 6th seeded Wei Jie Chia of Malaysia 21-14, 21-17 in the quarterfinals before waging a titanic struggle to overcome Alberto Alvin Yulianto of Indonesia 21-16, 19-21, 24-22 in the semifinals.

Kiran is the younger son of former International and Arjuna awardee George Thomas and has been training in the Academy for the last four years. Besides Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy, Kiran is also being supported by Airport Authority of India and Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ).