Guyana’s Priyanna Ramdhani yesterday stormed into the quarter finals of the women’s singles badminton competition at the XII South American games currently underway in Paraguay.
Ramdhani, the lone female in the discipline, played solidly to defeat Chile’s Rosa Quilodran in straight games 21-19 and
21-12 to move on to the round of 16. Coming up against Aruba’s Leyenne Schairer, in her round of 16 match, Ramdhani held her composure after a see saw first game to close the out the game 21-19.
She then dominated the next game 21-11 to advance to the quarter finals and keep Guyana’s hope alive of a medal in the discipline.
Priyanna is the first female to represent Guyana in badminton at the South American Games.
Earlier, in the first match of the day Guyana’s Narayan Ramdhani played Colombia’s Daniel Borja Aleans in the men’s singles event.
Narayan Ramdhani won the fixture in straight games (2-0) winning 21-15 and 21-15.
He then moved on to the round of 16 where he took on the higher seeded Nicolas Ezequiel Oliva of Argentina and lost in straight games.
At 10:30, Guyana’s Akili Haynes took on Ecuador’s Diego Zambrano and after losing the first set, came back to win the second set but lost the third set in a close back and forth battle with Zambrano (10-21, 21-12 and 19-21).
In mixed doubles the sibling pair of Narayan and Priyanna Ramdhani put on a
clinical performance when the brushed aside their Venezuela opponents in straight games 21-9 and 21-8 to move on to the round of 16. As if fighting to defend Essequibo the duo never gave
Venezuela a chance at getting comfortable much less at winning a set.
