After sealing their berths in the Asian Juniors, to be held in Ansan (Korea) from June 29 to July 4, the Indian paddlers continued their winning ways to complete a golden sweep of team medals in the South Asian Junior Table Tennis Championships in Colombo today.
In Junior Boys, the Indians first beat Pakistan 3-0 and followed it up with another identical win over hosts Sri Lanka to complete their group engagement and claim the gold.
The Manav Thakkar-led combination with Manush Shah and Parth Virmani made it a formality against the Pakistan's Fahad Khawaja, Obaid Shah and Basit Khan and then repeated it against Sri Lanka's KDVMadhushan, PD Umesh Thennakoon and Nimesh Ranchagoda for the sweep.
Manush Shah won 11-7, 11-6, 11-9 against Madhushan but Manav dropped a game against Umesh before overpowering him 11 -9, 11-6, 8-11, 11-4. Later, Parth completed the task with a 9-11, 11-4, 14-12, 11-8 win over Nimesh in a tough third rubber.
India, finishing with eight points, were followed by Sri Lanka and logged six points from their three wins over Pakistan, Bangladesh and Maldives to be the second team to qualify for the Asian event.
In Junior Girls, India and Sri Lanka had completed the four-team group events in that order yesterday itself, winning gold and silver, respectively, and qualify for the event in Korea. Archana Kamath, Moumita Datta and Priyanka Pareek did the star turn in the junior section.
Similarly, in Cadet Girls, India topped the league chart with 3-0 win records over Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Maldives, thanks to Anusha Kutumbale, Swastika Ghosh and Vanshika Bhargava, for the second gold yesterday.
Today, the Cadet Boys repeated with Pakistan and then Sri Lanka with the same margin of 3-0 victories, to claim the fourth gold. The boys who did the trick for India were H Jeho, Chinmaya Somaiya and Payas Jain.
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