The 2025 Edition of the biggest badminton tournament on Uganda Badminton Association calendar climaxed on Sunday 24th February at Lugogo Indoor Arena were foreign delegation dominated all categories.
India’s Manraj Singh and American Ishika Jaiswal won the men’s and women’s singles titles, respectively, at the Uganda International Badminton Challenge, which concluded yesterday on Sunday.
The five days prestigious tournament has attracted players from thirty (30) countries, all competing to earn crucial points toward qualification for the USA 2028 Olympic Games.
In the men’s
The men’s singles event title was claimed by India’s Manraj Singh, who stopped Dicky Pangestu of Azerbaijan 21-10, 17-21, 21-18 in a one-hour final at the Lugogo Indoor Stadium while America’s Ishika Jaiswal has beaten Neslihan Arin from Turkey to clinch the women’s title at the Uganda International Badminton Challenge .
The Indian player displayed strong court awareness, clever movement, and powerful shots that Pangestu struggled to counter. “I am very happy to become a champion here in Uganda and accumulate more world ranking points,” Singh told Rora Media.
Ugandan players were all ousted from the competition in the round of 32 and quater final were Indian players shine brightest at the 2025 Uganda international badminton challenge.
Uganda’s best performance came to quarter final of women’s double, the flag bearers at this stage were Tracy Naluwooza and Shamika Fadilla.
In the mens Doubles Dingku Singh Konthoujam and Amaan Mohammad later defeated Akshan Shetty and Sankar Prasad Udayakumar 14-21, 21-15, 21-17 in an all-Indian men’s doubles final.
In the women’s doubles final, the United States’ Lauren Lam and Allison Lee beat Switzerland’s Lucie Amiguet and Caroline Rocloz 21-10, 21-13.
The mixed doubles final was an all-Indian affair that saw seventh-seeded Indian badminton players Dhruv Rawat and Maneesha K take on Ishaan Bhatnagar and Srinidhi Narayanan.
Ishaan Bhatnagar-Srinidhi Narayanan emerged as the mixed doubles winners after Dhruv Rawat-Maneesha K retired due to injury. Srinidhi and Ishaan won the first game 21-18 and were leading 9-3 in the second.
Ishaan, a former mixed doubles partner of Paris 2024 Olympian Tanisha Crasto, and Srinidhi, had won the Iran Fajr International Challenge together.
This marks the second Olympic qualifying event on the African continent this year, following the conclusion of the All Africa Senior Championships .
Next tournament’s are the 2025 Sri Lanka International badminton Challenge which is starting on Tuesday and Uganda international Juniors will start today attracted 13 countries playing for three days starting on 24th Monday to Wednesday 26th 2025 .
