Kerala’s badminton duo Bjorn-Aathish coping with competition at higher level

Bjorn Jaison and P.V. Aathish Sreenivas, two doubles specialists from Kerala, have great on-court chemistry despite living and training separately. They won a bronze medal in the U15 Asian Junior Badminton Championships and recently won the U17 doubles title in the State Junior Badminton Championships. Struggling initially in the U17 category, they reached the semis in an all-India ranking tournament, boosting their confidence. They plan strategies with their coaches and are confident of replicating their U15 success. Satwiksairaj and Chirag Shetty are their idols and they hope to emulate their feat one day.

They live and train separately in different cities and hardly meet each other, except during tournaments, yet their on-court chemistry is so good that it seems Bjorn Jaison and P.V. Aathish Sreenivas have been playing together for ages.

The duo created a sensation last year when they won a bronze medal in the under-15 boys’ doubles at the Asian Junior badminton championships in Thailand.

Bjorn and Aathish are the latest set of players to join the illustrious list of doubles specialists from Kerala. They lived up to their billing as the favourites and won the doubles title in the under-17 category in the recent State junior badminton championships at Karunagappally as well.

It was their first State title after moving to the higher age category.

Life wasn’t easy for them in the higher age group level. After dominating the opponents in the under-15 category, the duo was knocked out in the opening rounds of the first two all-India ranking tournaments they took part in this year.

However, they seemed to have turned things around when they reached the semifinals in the all-India ranking tournament held in Lucknow earlier this month. The performance in the Lucknow event has boosted their confidence and duo is coming to terms with dealing with quality opposition in the higher age category.