Table Tennis
Indian junior paddlers dominate to qualify for Asian Youth C'ships
India U-19 girls, U-15 boys, and U-15 girls clinched gold medals at the South Asian Youth Championships to qualify for the Asian Championships.
The duo of Suhana Saini (left) and Yashaswini Ghorpade (right) had a good run in 2022.
The Indian girls displayed their regional supremacy once again with a clean slate to lead the single-group chart and win gold in the U-19 team event of the South Asian Youth Table Tennis at the Dorjee Khandu Indoor Stadium in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh on Monday.
In their last round-robin match, India beat Sri Lanka 3-0 to earn the gold medal and book their tickets to Doha for the Asian Youth Championships in July. Joining the Indians in Doha will be the girls from Sri Lanka.
Maldives and Nepal, who finished in that order behind Lanka, will satisfy themselves with the bronze medals.
The Indian U-19 squad, comprising Yashaswini Ghorpade, Suhana Saini, Taneesha Kotecha and Jennifer Varghese, registered four 3-0 wins over their rivals in the five-team group.
In the U-19 boys, however, Nepal upstaged Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in a three-way tie to win gold and ensure their trip to Doha. Sri Lanka edged Bangladesh out on decimal points to follow Nepal to Qatar. Bangladesh and the Maldives ended their campaign with bronze.
Similarly, the Indian domination continued in the U-15 boys section as they led the single-group team events to take the gold. They did a clinical job, beating their opponents with an identical margin of 3-0 in the four matches they had to play.
The team consisted of P.B. Abhinand, Priyanuj Bhattacharya and Punit Biswas. The Sri Lankans settled for silver, while Bangladesh and Maldives had to settle for bronze medals.
The inevitable happened in the U-15 girls section, too. The Indians, led by Jennifer Varghese, Sayanika Maji and Avisha Karmakar, held sway over their neighbouring rivals, winning all their matches against their opponents 3-0.
Following them on the medal podium were silver medallists Nepal and bronze winners Maldives and Sri Lanka.
Thus, India started their gold-winning spree with three team medals. Nepal bagged the fourth gold on offer on the second day of the championships.
The Indian U-19 boys, who had already qualified after their top-four-team finish in the Asian Juniors in Laos last year, will join the fray in the individual events beginning Tuesday.
