A participant in action during the Under-19 girls’ singles event of the championship. Picture by Srinivas

Jamshedpur, Sept. 3: Nandini Kumari and Insha Imam made their way to the girls’ singles semi-finals of the 42nd Mohan Memorial Badminton Tournament at Mohan Ahuja Stadium today.

Palamau-based shuttler Nandini came better against Pinki Kumari (Ranchi) 21-17, 21-5 while Insha defeated Mrinalini 21-9, 21-16 in the quarter-finals on day two of the meet.

Palamau’s Hosana Topno also joined Nandini and Insha in the girls’ singles semi- finals.

Naureen Hera of Ranchi and Hazaribagh’s Shreya Prabhakar won berths in the girl’s Under-13 singles semi-final along with Zeenat Parvin (Ranchi). Zeenat came better against Ranchi’s Manisha 21-15, 21-7 while Shreya put it across Jamshedpur’s Kajal Kumari 21-17, 21-7 in the quarter-final ties.

Zeenat also overcame stiff resistance from city’s Sweta Ray 21-16, 19-21, 21-19 in a match today.

A clutch of 16 shuttlers advanced into the pre quarter-final of boys’ singles. Jamshedpur’s Sachin Kumar Rana, Vivek Sharma and Jitendra Kacchap (both of Ranchi) earned walkovers while Jitendra Kacchap (Ranchi) and Satya Prakash posted comfortable wins over local players Harishankar Bodra (21-8, 21-5) and Amit Kumar Modak (21-9, 21-10), respectively.

In the other boys’ singles of the day, Ranchi shuttlers Sanju Kumar and Safi Akram defeated R.M. Sharma (Dhanbad) and Babu Lal Bari (West Singhbhum) 21-14, 21-19 and 21-16, 25-23, respectively. Whereas Latehar’s Arun Kumar had the last laugh against Abhilesh Kumar Yadav of Ranchi (21-11, 21-15).

Purushottam Baraik (Ranchi), Santosh Singh (Deogarh), Rajan Kumar (Palamau), Prem Kumar (Dhanbad), Amit Kumar (Deogarh), Amar Jyoti Bose (Jamshedpur), Rajesh Bari (West Singhbhum) and defending champion Rahul of Ranchi were the others who also came through in their respective matches.