CITY’S veteran shuttler Sharad Mahajan finished second best in the All India Masters Qualifying Badminton Championship that concluded recently.

Fifth seed Mahajan lost to top seed Manohar Joshi of Pune in three keenly-contested games. Mahajan took the first game 21-16. He was leading 17-15 in the second game and was just four points away from an upset win but the better rated player bounced back to take it 25-23. In the decider, the city shuttler took a four-point lead and was 17-13 up at one stage. Again, he blew the lead to go down 19-21 and had to settle for silver medal.

On his way to the summit clash, Mahajan defeated Rajasthan’s Sharma 21-13, 21-11 and beat Nair from Delhi 21-15, 21-13. In the quarter-final, Mahajan stunned third seed Gurbaksh Singh Juneja of MP 21-7, 21-14. He again scored a straight game win over Satpal Singh Angurala from Haryana in the semi-final 23-21, 21-11. Till he lost those final two games, Mahajan did not drop a single game in the tourney.