WORLD TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS: HOST SCOTLAND EDGES INDIA

**This NEW SHUTTLENWS report is presented by YANG YANG BADMINTON PRODUCTS and their Southern U.S.A. agents, SPORTSNET INTERNATIONAL (Email:jumpsmash@aol.com /Tel:713-771-8905/Fax:713-771-4444)**

May 19, 1997 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - Host nation Scotland edged past India 3 matches to 2 in their opening Group 3B fixture at the badminton world team championships in Glasgow this evening.

The husband-and-wife pair of Kenny and Elinor Middlemiss took the opening mixed doubles match of the best-of-five-matches fixture, defeating Pullela Gopichand and P.V.V. Lakshmi 15-7 and 15-3.

Anne Gibson lost the first game of her women's singles match against Manjusha Kumar 11-12, but recovered her bearings to easily best the Indian woman in the second and third games 11-2 and 11-3.

Indian Open finalist Pullela Gopichand put Indian on the board with his 15-5 and 18-13 men's singles victory over Bruce Flockhart. Vijaydeep Singh and Jaseel Ismail then pulled the Indian team even with the Scots when they defeated Kenny Middlemiss and Russell Hogg in men's doubles 15-11, 7-15 and 15-9.

The Indians gained the upper hand in the deciding women's doubles match when Madhumita Bisht and P.V.V. Lakshmi took the first game 15-13 from Elinor Middlemiss and Sandra Watt. But Indian hopes for a victory were dashed when Middlemiss and Watt won the second and third games 15-6 and 15-7.

In this competition, Scotland and the other teams in Groups 3A and 3B are only playing for promotion to Group 2 and are not in contention for the championship.

Results of this evening's fixtures:

Group 3A
Australia beat Finland 5 matches to none
Hong Kong beat Austria 5-0
Group 3B
Scotland beat India 3-2
New Zealand beat Norway 4-1
Group 7A
Cyprus beat Luxembourg 3-2
Mexico beat Malta 4-1
Group 7B
Italy beat Argentina 5-0
Slovakia beat Brazil 5-0

(migrossman)