Golden sweep for junior teams
After sealing their berths in the Asian Juniors to be held in Ansan, Korea, from June 29 to July 4, Indian paddlers continued their winning ways to complete a golden sweep of team medals in the South Asian Junior Table Tennis Championships in Colombo on Saturday.
In the junior boys category, India beat Pakistan 3-0 and followed it up with an identical win over hosts Sri Lanka to complete their group engagements and claim the gold.
The Manav Thakkar-led combination with Manush Shah and Parth Virmani made it a formality against Pakistan’s Fahad Khawaja, Obaid Shah and Basit Khan and then repeated it against Sri Lanka’s K.D.V. Madhushan, P.D. Umesh Thennakoon and Nimesh Ranchagoda for the sweep.
Manush defeated Madhushan 11-7, 11-6, 11-9 but Manav dropped a game against Umesh before overpowering him 11-9, 11-6, 8-11, 11-4.
Later, Parth completed the task with a 9-11, 11-4, 14-12, 11-8 win over Nimesh in a tough third rubber.
India, finishing with eight points, were followed by Sri Lanka and logged six points from their three wins over Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives to become the second team to qualify for the Asian event.
In junior girls, India and Sri Lanka had completed the fourteam group events in that order itself, winning gold and silver respectively, and qualify for the event in Korea. Archana Kamath, Moumita Datta and Priyanka Pareek did the star turn in the junior section.
Similarly in cadet girls, India topped the league chart with 3-0 wins over Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the Maldives, thanks to Anusha Kutumbale, Swastika Ghosh and Vanshika Bhargava, for the second gold.
The cadet boys beat Pakistan and Sri Lanka with the same margin of 3-0 victories, to claim the fourth gold. The boys who did the trick for India were H. Jeho, Chinmaya Somaiya and Payas Jain.