Rich haul by Indian paddlers
India’s young table tennis players picked up 12 medals at the Bahrain Junior and Cadet Open on a high note.
It was a rich haul as they added eight more medals to their overnight four to make it 12 overall. Two gold, three silver and three bronze medals which they won late on Monday night in Manama, Bahrain.
The medal rush for India started off with World No. 4 in the U-15 bracket, Payas Jain, steamrolling past his opponents to clinch the Cadet Boys’ Individual category crown. In the finals, he tamed Simon Belik of Czech Republic 3-1 to bag the gold medal.
In the Cadet Girls’ category, five young Indian paddlers paved their way into the quarterfinals, but only two of them eventually made it to the last four stage.
Anargya Manjunath and Yashaswini Ghorpade then registered easy 3-0 wins over Malamatenia Papadimitriou of Greece and Hana Goda of Egypt, to make the final clash an all-Indian affair.
Karnataka’s Anargya proved to be the girl in form, beating Yashaswini 3-1 to clinch the gold.
Suhana Saini and Swastika Ghosh fought valiantly in the Mini-Cadet Girls’ and Junior Girls’ category, respectively, but could only salvage a bronze medal each for their efforts.
Suhana (U-15) went down to World No. 42 Hana Goda of Egypt in the semifinals to take the third spot. Swastika Ghosh too couldn’t put it past eventual winner Kristina Kazantseva of Russia and had to be content with a bronze too.
In the doubles section, the duos of Anargya ManjunathSuhana Saini and Manushree Patil- Swastika Ghosh made it to the semifinals in the Junior Girls’ category.