In pictures: Indian youth table tennis stars bag 4 historic medals at World Youth Table Tennis Championships

Capping off a brilliant run at the 2021 World Youth Table Tennis Championships, Indian table tennis stars led by U-15 World No. 3 Suhana Saini and U-17 World No. 2 Payas Jain outshone themselves at the prestigious Portugal event. While Rohtak's Suhana Saini picked up a hat-trick of medals by winning three bronze medals across the U-15 girls' team, doubles, and singles events, meanwhile Payas Jain, the World No. 4 in U-19 also claimed a bronze medal in his U-19 boys' singles outing. 

The fact that Indian table tennis is growing rapidly and India is able to go this deep in tournaments like the World Youth Championships is indeed a heartening sight and promises a bright future ahead. Earlier, this tournament did not include the U-19 and was known as the World Junior Championships and saw India winning a medal in the mixed doubles when Soumyajit Ghosh won in 2010. Ever since then, there was a medal drought in this as well but these young paddlers took care of it and brought home 4 historic bronze medals from the prestigious tournament. 

Let's relive this beautiful run by the young paddlers through pictures:

1. Suhana Saini after securing her semi-final berth in the U-15 girls' singles

2. Payas Jain during his U-19 boys' singles match

3. Suhana Saini and Matiunina Veronika of Ukraine during the U-15 girls' doubles match

4. The jubilant U-15 Indian girls' team with the bronze medal

5. Suhana Saini in her U-15 girls' singles encounter

6. Podium finish - U-19 boys' singles for Payas Jain

7. The U-15 girls' team with the bronze on the podium

8. Suhana Saini with her bronze from the U-15 girls' singles event

Remember these faces and the names because you are surely going to see a lot of them in the coming days as they continue to make India proud on the global stage and keep the medal shower going.