Manav, Shrushti emerge junior champions

Durgapur, October 29, 2014: After his fine title wins at Central and West Zone events, Petroleum Sports Promotion Board’s Manav Thakkar followed them up with yet another title at the National Ranking (East Zone) Table Tennis Championships at the Sidhu Kanu Indoor Stadium, City Centre here today.

Thakkar defeated West Bengal’s Jeet Chandra 4-2 in what was a bit one-sided affair. The sub-junior girls’ crown went to Srushti Haleangadi who missed by a whisker at Gandhidham two weeks ago. The Maharashtra girl defeated Tamil Nadu’s Selena Deepthi Selvakumar 4-0 to take home a sizeable winner’s purse.

In Cadet Boys, another PSPB boy H. Jeho Himnakulhpuingheta downed Delhi’s Yanshansh Malik 4-1 while Munmun Kundu, making amends here, defeated Vanshika Bhargava 4-1 to claimed the crown. The Delhi girl, who reached the final in the West Zone, yet again finished the bride’s maid.

As for the semifinals, the scripts in all sections reflected more or less what the previous three National Ranking Championships portrayed. The only difference this time was Sarthak Seth of UP entered the last-four stage while Anukram Jain of PSPB missed the bus in the sub-junior section. Manush Shah of Gujarat, a bright prospect, yet again failed to go past the rampaging PSPBA boy Manav Thakkar. Incidentally, Manav hails from Surat.

Among girls, Selena Deepthi of Tamil Nadu had reached the semifinals while she failed to progress beyond the quarters in earlier occasions. Shrushti Halengadi of Maharashtra was very much in the reckoning this time to win title as she bête noire Archana Kamath had skipped the zonal, having been selected to represent Asia at the World Cadet Challenge in Barbados. Her team finished with the silver at Georgetown after it went down 2-3 to Europe.

As for the Cadet section, none of the contestants from hosts West Bengal could go beyond the first round of the main draw despite seven of them having made the cut. Similarly, North Bengal’s Jayabrata Bhattacharjee who had entered the semifinals at Gandhidham bowed out a round before leaving the title contests to others. Yanshansh Malik filled Delhi’s vacuum in the Cadet Boys section by entering the semifinals—at Indore state mate Payas Jain had won the title—here. As usual, Delhi girl Vanshika Bhargava made the final cut like she did at Gandhidham. But she lost the title race to Swastika Ghosh of Maharashtra. Vanshika defeated surprise pack Suhana Saini from Haryana 3-1 in the semifinals. And finalist Mummun Kundu accounted for Maharashtra’s Divya Chitale in a hard fought 3-2 battle.

Meanwhile, the main draw event in the Junior Boys and Girls sections began while the qualification matches in men and women’s singles as well as in the Youth sections will start later this evening.

The Results:

Sub-Junior Boys: Final: Manav Thakkar (PSPBA) bt Jeet Chandra (WB) 4-2 (7-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-13, 11-9, 11-3); Semifinals: Manav Thakkar (PSPBA) bt Manush Shah (Guj) 4-0 (12-10, 11-8, 11-5, 11-8), Jeet Chandra (WB) bt Sarthak Seth (UP) 4-0 (11-7, 11-6, 11-5, 11-8).

Sub-Junior Girls: Final: Srushti Haleangadi (Mhr) bt Selena Deepthi Selvakumar (TN) 4-0 (11-6, 14-12, 11-5, 11-8); Semifinals: Selena Deepthi (TN)  bt  Manasi Chiplunkar (Mhr)  4-0  (13-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-30, Srushti Halengadi (Mhr)  bt  Manushree Patil (Mhr) 4-2 (11-3, 8-11, 11-5, 8-11, 11-3, 11-4).

Cadet Boys: Final: H. Jeho Himnakulhpuingheta (PSPBA) bt Yanshansh Malik (Dli) 4-1 (11-7, 6-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-8); Semifinals: Yanshansh Malik (Dli) bt Satyam Giri Gupta (UP) 3-2 (6-11, 11-5, 8-11, 11-6, 11-4), H. Jeho Himnakulhpuingheta (PSPBA) bt Payas Jain (Dli) 3-0 (11-3, 11-9, 11-2).

Cadet Girls: Final: Munmun Kundu (WB) bt Vanishka Bhargava (Dli) 4-1 (11-8, 3-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-9); Semifinals: Munmun Kundu (WB) bt Diya Chitale (Mhr) 3-2 (8-11, 11-6, 11-3, 9-11, 11-5), Vanishika Bhargava (Dli) bt Suhana Saini (Hrn) 3-1 (11-8, 5-11, 11-4, 11-4).

A TTFI Press release