Bal Bharti, BIS storm into final

Reigning national champions Bhatnagar International School (Vasant Kunj) beat Manav Sthali (RBlock) 3-0 to enter the senior boys team final in the DSTTA organised 11Even Sports interschool table tennis championships at the Hansraj Model School at Punjab Bagh in the capital on Wednesday.

In the final, BIS will take on Bal Bharti Public School (Pitam Pura), who beat Amity International School (Mayur Vihar) by a similar margin.

In the senior girls team final, Hansraj Model School (Punjabi Bagh) play Manav Sthali (RBlock). The host school defeated BIS (Vasant Kunj) 3-2 in a thrilling semi-final, while Manav Sthali accounted for another branch of BIS from Paschim Vihar 3-1.

BIS entering the boys final was expected, thanks to paddlers like Payas Jain and Yashansh Malik, the backbone of the team. In fact, in the national final last year at Vadodara, they were a dominant force and are a regular feature in a Team India scheme.

In singles events, introduced for the first time, Tejas Narang of Hansraj Model School, Prabhneet Singh of St Marks School, Samrath Singh of Vishwa Bharti School and Parth Yadav, also of Hansraj Model School entered the semifinals in the junior boys section.

In the junior girls singles, Manika Kesar of Modern School, Yashika Sharma of Hansraj Model, Archa Jain of Appejay School and Kashvi Gupta of Hansraj Model School booked their semi-final berths.

The finals in both the team events as well as singles will take place on Thursday.