Jessica Gurung of Jhapa stunned national champion Nangsal Devi Tamang in the women’s singles semi-finals of the seventh Pushpa Lal Memorial National Badminton Championships on Friday.

Gurung rallied to beat the top seeded Tribhuvan Army Club (TAC) shuttler Nangsal Devi 14-21, 21-15, 21-16 to set the title clash with another surprise finalist, 14-year-old Rasila Maharjan of TAC. Maharjan saw off Sunaina Mukhiya of Jhapa 21-6, 21-17 in another semi-final match.

Gurung also teamed up with Mukhiya to advance into the women’s doubles title match. The duo beat Maharjan and Amita Giri 21-16, 17-21, 21-17 in the last four clash. They will play for the doubles championships against Army’s Nangsal Devi and Anumaya Rai, who defeated Jyoti Limbu and Dina Pun 21-10, 23-21. Gurung also made it to the girls’ U-19 singles final with a 21-9, 21-5 win over Rose Pandey. Maharjan, who saw off Sima Rajbanshi 21-11, 21-16 in another semi-final match, await Gurung in the final.

Ratnajit Tamang of TAC and Dipesh Dhami of Nepal Armed Police Force (APF) Club set the men’s singles title showdown. Ratnajit got the better of Bikash Shrestha of Bhojpur 21-18, 21-15 and Dhami battled to a 14-21, 21-18, 21-15 win over Nabin Shrestha of TAC in the semi-finals.

Armymen Ratna and Nabin also advanced to the men’s doubles final where they meet APF duo Dhami and Bijit Thapa. Ratna and Nabin saw off Bishnu Katuwal and Jiwan Acharya of Nepal Police Club (NPC) 21-14, 21-17 while Dhami and Bijit eliminated Army’s Suroj Maharjan and Prafullah Maharjan 21-19, 212-18 in the semi-finals.

The Army club ensured the boys’ U-19 singles title as two of their shuttlers Prafullah and Rukesh Maharjan entered the final. Prafullah beat Sunil Joshi 21-18, 21-12 and Rukesh saw off Pranish Singh Thakuri 21-13, 21-12 in the last four clash.

Yogeshwor Shrestha and Kiran Pradhan of Dhankutta set the veterans’ doubles title clash with Sujat Ratna Shakya and Sunil Shakya of Lalitpur. All the finals will be played on Saturday.