Gujarat men in final, women end up with bronze
Bhavnagar, November 7: What the women team members could not do was made up by their men counterpart as Gujarat entered the final of the UTT National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships beginning at the SAG Sports Complex here today.
The tournament is organised by Gujarat State Table Tennis Association and supported by Sports Authority of Gujarat and Bhavnagar District Table Tennis Association. Held under the aegis of Table Tennis Federation of India, the tournament is co-sponsored by State Bank of India and powered by STAG.
The hosts’ men team, led by India No. 1 Manav Thakkar, Manush Shah who won the Youth Boys title recently in the East Zone championships along with Ishaan Hingorani ensured their entry into the final where they will take on Maharashtra A later this evening.
Earlier, Team Gujarat in women’s section had to satisfy itself with the bronze medal only as they went down fighting to Maharashtra B squad.
The team events for the region with just seven states involved, only four of them could put up their squads with all of them straightaway in the knockout stage. Maharashtra, with a larger pool of players, were allowed pitting two teams—A and B and it, in a way, helped them immensely.
Gujarat, with the likes of young and upcoming Namna Jaiswal, Kausha Bhairapure and the experienced Frenaz Chipia, did begin on a bright note when Namna and Frenaz combined well to defeat the Maharashtra B pair of Aditi Sinha and Manasi Chiplunkar 15-13, 11-6, 11-5 while Khushi, playing the first singles, could not match up the guile of Manushree Patil who won 11-8, 7-11, 11-8, 11-8 to level the score.
Frenaz, however, provided the lead for the hosts as she easily beat Manasi 12-10, 11-9, 11-9 but it was neutralised when Namna lost her singles to Manushree 11-8, 7-11, 9-11, 7-11, taking the issue to the decider where Aditi Sinha, after some struggle, downed Kausha 7-11, 11-8, 11-4, 11-4 to move into the semi-finals.
Thus, the hosts’ women squad had to be content with the bronze. However, there was a silver lining in the men’s event as the team led by India No. 1 Manav Thakkar, Youth Boys champion Manush Shah, ensured their entry into the final. Team Gujarat in women’s section had to satisfy itself with the bronze medal only as they went down fighting to Maharashtra B squad in the UTT National Ranking (Central Zone) Table Tennis Championships here at the SAG Sports Complex today.
The team events for the region with just seven states involved, only four of them could put up their squads with all of them straightaway in the knockout stage. Maharashtra, with a larger pool of players, were allowed pitting two teams—A and B and it, in a way, helped them immensely.
Gujarat, with the likes of young and upcoming Namna Jaiswal, Kausha Bhairapure and the experienced Frenaz Chipia, did begin on a bright note when Namna and Frenaz combined well to defeat the Maharashtra B pair of Aditi Sinha and Manasi Chiplunkar 15-13, 11-6, 11-5 while Khushi, playing the first singles, could not match up the guile of Manushree Patil who won 11-8, 7-11, 11-8, 11-8 to level the score.
Frenaz, however, provided the lead for the hosts as she easily beat Manasi 12-10, 11-9, 11-9 but it was neutralised when Namna lost her singles to Manushree 11-8, 7-11, 9-11, 7-11, taking the issue to the decider where Aditi Sinha, after some struggle, downed Kausha 7-11, 11-8, 11-4, 11-4 to move into the semi-finals.
It was a tough call for Gujarat in men’s semi-final as the Maharashtra boys stretched them fully in all the three games they played and yet ended with a 3-0 score lone in the end. Opening the doubles for Guajrat, Ishaan and Manush were their Maharashtra B opponents 3-2. But it was not stopped at that as Manav, playing his singles, too struggled to find his feet before winning against Bhavesh Apte 3-2. Manush, in his singles, was trailing 1-2 before wearing out Mandar Hardikar to level the score and then win it in the decider for the clean verdict.
Earlier in the day the Competition was declared open by Shri M.A. Gandhi, IAS, Commissioner, Bhavnagar Municipal Corporation. Also present during the opening ceremony were Shri Dhanraj Choudhary, Advisor TTFI, Shri Rajendrasinh Rana, Ex-Member of Parliament, Shri V.N. Sarma DGM Business & Operations SBI Bhavnagar, Shri D.G. Jakhade, Vice-president Nirma Pvt Ltd, Shri Nisheeth Mehta Sr. Vice-president GSTTA, Shri Amit Choksi, treasurer GSTTA, Shri N Ganeshan, competition Manager, Rujul Patel, Kushal Sangtani and Pathik Mehta.