DAMMAM, 2 November — Indian Thomas Kurian, junior national champion, defeated countryman Ajit Vijaytilak 7-5, 7-4, 7-4 to lift the Delmon Trophy in the fifth Open Bdminton tournament held at the Indian School (IIS) gymnasium last weekend.

The Badminton Federation of Saudi Arabia was holding the tournament.

About 200 players from the Kingdom and Bahrain participated in the event. But the unusual and exciting thing was, apart from the regular contests there was the participation of six, premier badminton players who had come all the way from India and played singles and double matches among themselves. The match was sponsored by Delmon, BJ Services among others.

The crowd got a rare opportunity to see under one roof, the likes of Jaseel Ismail, a doubles national champion for five years; Thomas Kurian, a junior national champion, Ajit Vijaytilak who represented India in Thomas cup, French Open. There was also the ever popular Arvind Bhat who is the current singles champion for the state of Karnataka, Jaison Xavier who is also well known in the Gulf for winning GCC Open twice, and N. Shivaprakash who has been a state champion for Karnataka in doubles for two years.

Famous Indian badminton player Prakash Padakone could not make it to the tournament due to some family matters but the others made up for that disappointment.

The first super single finals of the International players was between Thomas Kurian, India’s No. 7 and Ajit Vijaytilak, India’s No. 3.

The big crowd of over a 1000 was treated to a display of world class game.

In the men premier flight (doubles) George Puthen Madhom and Nahas Umer of Dammam Port and B.A.E club respectively played Francis Devassy and Benny Mathew of International Indian School, Riyadh This was hotly contested. All players showed great aggression, and smashing frenzy but ultimately Devassy and Mathew humbled Madhom and Umer, much to the disappointment of the crowd who were mostly supporting the local Dammam team.

The super doubles between the champions was greatly awaited.

Jaseel the No. 1 seeded doubles player, and his partner, India’s No. 6 player Arvind Bhat played Jaison Xavier a one time number one seed and Thomas Kurian, rated No. 7 in India. Jaseel and Arvind defeated their opponents 15-6 and 15-8 to win the Delmon Trophy.