After 18 years, UP paddlers win bronze
LUCKNOW:Uttar Pradesh paddlers on Sunday night proved their might in style, winning a bronze medal at the Senior National Championship at Cuttack after a long of 18 years.
Uttar Pradesh, which had their maiden bronze medal in 2000 during the nationals here, lost to Gujarat 1-3 in the second semi-final, settling for a bronze medal along with Delhi, which also lost to champions PSPB 0-3 in other semi-final.
Under the watchful guidance of former UP champion Parag Agarwal, Uttar Pradesh men started off well, surprising Bengal 3-2 in a thrilling prequarterfinals, before outplaying Haryana 3-2 in the quarterfinal.
On Sunday night, Sarthak Seth remained the only one, winning his match, defeating Jalay Mehta 4-11, 13-11, 11-7, 11-9.
In other matches, Gujarat’s Harmeet Desai beat Abhinav Belwal 11-5, 11-3, 11-6, Manush Shah beat Abhishek Yadav 11-8, 11-9 before Harmeet Desai outplaying Abhishek 11-9, 11-5, 11-5 in the reverse singles.
“It’s a great achievement for our paddlers and I find that beating Bengal in the prequarters was the biggest one for us,” UP Table Tennis Association’s secretary, Arun Banerjee said.
He also announced a sum of Rs 30,000 as cash award to the team members. “As per our policy for medal winners, bronze medalist team would get Rs 30,000,” said Banerjee, who also hoped that UP paddlers would also do something good in the individual events, which began on Monday evening.