Panthi remained unbeaten in her group as she edged past her club-mate Shiksha Shrestha 21-18, 21-10 and beat Amita Giri of Jhapa 21-15, 21-10 on Monday at the National Sports Council Covered Hall. Nangshal Devi Tamang defeated Giri 21-15, 21-10 and received walkover from Samjhana Sharma of Banke to remain on the runner-up position of the group A.[break]
In group B, Gurung remained on the top as she won all the matches. She defeated Sara Devi Tamang 21-13, 21-13 and pulled a struggling 17-21, 21-18, 21-15 victory over Samjhana Khaling of APF.
Sara Devi Tamang qualified to semifinal as she received walkover from Jal Maya Gurung of Nepal Police.
In the other matches, Amita Giri edged past Shiksha Shrestha 21-18, 21-19 and received walkover from Samjhana Sharma.
Panthi will take on Sara Devi Tamang in the semifinal while Gurung will lock horns with Nangshal Devi Tamang.
Likewise, Bikash Shrestha of Bhojpur, Deepesh Dhami, Ratnajeet Tamang, Pankaj Chand and Bishal Pradhan of APF, Bisnu Katuwal and Sajan Krishna Tamrakar of Nepal Police as well as Sahadev Khadka of Kailali secured quarterfinal berths in the men´s section of the tournament organized by Nepal Confederation of Sports under the initiation of Nepal Badminton Association.
Hemkhyama Rai, Jeshika Gurung, Tila Neupane and Sunaina Mukhia reached semifinals in girls´ section while Gautam Kathayat, Bishal Moktan, Ganesh Rayamajhi, Saroj Ansari, Nabin Shrestha, Nir Bikram Devkota, Sujan Shrestha and Riyaz Ansari qualified to the boys´ quarterfinals.
Match-fixing rumors
A match-fixing rumor surfaced on Monday after the match of Sara Devi Tamang and Punam Gurung at the tournament venue. Few APF team officials alleged Tamang of deliberately loosing the match to avoid semifinal draw against her own sister Nangshal Devi, who also plays for APF.
"We have doubts about the match. We felt Sara Devi was deliberately hitting on the net," said a badminton coach, who demanded anonymity.
Nepal Badminton Association General Secretary Ramji Bahadur Shrestha dismissed the claims. "We haven´t received any such report from technical officials and nobody has filed any complaint with such claim. It may just be a rumor," said Shrestha.
Shuttler Tamang claimed that injury on her knee affected her match today. "There was pain on my knee. Meanwhile, I was already qualified for the semifinal. In this scenario, my intensity could have dropped but match-fixing allegations are baseless," said Tamang.
Meanwhile, APF coach Sudeep Yonjan said that such rumors are bad for the development of game. "If there were such actions on the court, association should investigate such issues," said Yonjan.
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