India bagged major honours winning the highest medal tally of 10 golds and four silvers, including the gold medal of each and every event to become overall champions while host Sri Lanka emerged second grabbing six silvers and three bronze medals at the first ever international TT tourney worked off in Sri Lanka, the South Asian Junior and Cadet Table Tennis Championship 2017 that concluded on a grand note at the S. Thomas’ Indoor Stadium, Mount Lavinia yesterday.
Maldives secured third place with three bronze medals while Pakistan and Bangladesh won two bronze medals each.
Thakkar Manav Vikash and Kamath Archana Girish, both from India won the Junior boys’ and girls’ singles titles respectively in the all Indian finals. The junior singles final was decided on the best of five sets and Thakkar beat his team mate Virmani Parth 3/1 (11/6, 6/11, 11/7, 11/9) in a tough boys’ final battle.
Kamath found it easy to clinch the girls’ singles crown when she beat Pareek Priyanka in easy straight set final 3/0 (11/9, 11/5, 11/7).
Thakkar booked his final berth by beating Sri Lanka’s Umesh Tennakoon 3/0 (11/7, 11/8, 11/6) while Virmani edged out K.D.V. Madhushan (SL) 3/0 (11/9, 11/7, 11/4) in the junior boys’ singles semi final event.
The junior girls’ singles semis saw champion Kamath facing a tough challenge from Sri Lanka’s Imasha de Silva. The Lankan won the initial set with ease but Kamath bounced back strongly to clear her way to the final winning the next three sets 3/1 (6/11,11/2,11/0, 11/4).
The other finalist Pareek too had to recover from an awful start in her semi-final against Lankan ace Hansani Pumila as the Lankan girl went onto win the first set. But Pareek showed good temperament to battle against Pumila’s skill and the Lankan crowd supported her as she entered the final winning a hard fought back-to-back three sets 3/1 (9/11, 11/6, 11/9, 14/12).
Indian duo Thakkar Manav Vikash and Virmani Parth bagged the Junior boys’ doubles title beating Sri Lankan pair K D V Madhushan and Umesh Tennakoon 3/1 while India’s Kamath Archana Girish and Pareek Priyanka won the Junior girls’ doubles final defeating Lankan pair K Hansani Piumila and Imasha de Silva in easy straight sets 3/0.
The Cadet boys’ singles final was won by India’s Jeho Himnakulhpuingheta over his team mate Somaiya Chinmaya Kapil 3/1 (11/1, 10/12, 11/10, 11/5). Jeho beat Mohutasin Ahmed from Bangladesh 3/0 (11/8, 11/4, 11/6) while Somaiya edged out Sri Lanka’s Bandara Alahakoon after a thrilling battle 3/2 (6/11, 11/9, 11/3, 10/12, 11/6) in the semis.
In an all Indian Cadet girls’ singles final, Kutumbale Anusha defeated Bhargava Vanshika after a fierce battle 3/2 (9/11, 11/3, 10/12, 12/10, 11/3). Kutumbale entered the final when she downed Lanka’s W Jithara Asvini 3/0 (11/2, 11/2, 11/5) while Bhargava had the better of K Dilmi Hirushika (SL) 3/0 (11/4, 11/3, 11/5) in the semis.
India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan emerged top three winners respectively in the Junior boys’ team event while India, Sri Lanka and Maldives became top winners in the Junior girls’ and Cadet team event. The Cadet boys’ team event saw India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh securing top spots in a row.
The three-day championship paved a good platform for local players to test their skills with the top ranked players of the region and the Table Tennis Association of Sri Lanka (TTASL) had done a great job to make the event a great success.
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