Kamath seals Youth Olympics spot
Table tennis player Archana Girish Kamath on Saturday qualified for the Youth Olympics in her last attempt, joining Manav Thakkar for the October event in Buenos Aires.
Archana beat Malaysia’s Chang Alice Li Sian 4- 1 in the final of the Road to Buenos Aires 2018 YOG Series Oceania at Rarotonga in the Cook Islands.
The junior paddler, who jumped a few places in this month’s ranking to be world number 12, won 11- 5, 9- 11, 11- 8, 11- 9, 11- 8.
It was her last chance to make the cut for the YOG, having failed to seal her berth at Rades ( Tunisia) and Bangkok ( Thailand) despite reaching the semi- finals in the latter.
Thakkar had booked his YOG ticket in the Thai capital last month.
In fact, Archana had a good chance of making the final in Bangkok but lost after leading 32 and 10- 8 in the sixth game to Hungarian Fanni Harasztovich. In Tunisia, she exited in the quarter- finals, losing to Singapore’s Zhang Wanling 2- 4.
In a way, Archana was lucky as the Sports Authority of India clearance came in the nick of time for her and head coach Massimo Costantini to travel to the Cook Islands on June 6 to be in time for the event starting on Friday.
The trip to Rarotonga was a tiring one with long layovers and took 36 hours.
The top- seeded Indian had a first- round bye but in the second round it was tough against the Philippines’ Jannah Maryam Romeron, who not only went ahead 2- 0 but also posed a lot of problems for Archana.
However, the determined Indian won the crucial third game with a minimal margin and the next on extended points to restore parity.
From there, it was a confident Archana who thumped her rival from the Philippines to enter the semi- finals with a 11- 13, 8- 11, 119, 13- 11, 11- 7, 11- 3 win.
In the semi- finals, the world no. 12 beat Iran’s Mahshid Ashtari 11- 2, 11- 7, 11- 7, 11- 5 and in the final, a cautious Archana dropped just one game before overpowering her Malaysian opponent to seal her YOG berth.