Gujarat girls U-19 team secure maiden national medal

Gandhidham 8, January: It’s new year and Gujarat table tennis is already scaling new heights.

State girls under-19 team led by Oishiki Joardar, Jiya Trivedi, Riya Jayswal, Nidhi Prajapati and coached by veteran paddler Jignesh Jayswal and Sudarshan Merese, stormed into semi-final of the under-19 girls team championships at the in the 85th UTT Inter-State Youth and Junior National Table Tennis Championships currently underway at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata. With this, they secured Gujarat’s maiden bronze medal in the girls under-19 team event at nationals.

After cleaning up Jharkhand, Assam and Meghalaya in the group stage, Gujarat paddlers gave a 3-0 royal pasting to Rajasthan in the quarterfinal to book their semis berth.

However, Oishiki and team failed to cross the semis hurdle as they went down 2-3 to Haryana.

Skipper Oishiki gave the team a brilliant start by winning her opening game. But Riya and Jiya lost their respective encounters and handed Haryana the advantage. Oishiki pulled one back again by pocketing the 4th game but Riya lost the decider which ended Gujarat’s dream run in the team event.

Gujarat State Table Tennis Association (GSTTA) president, Shri Pramod Chaudhary said that this medal was long due. “Our under-19 girls have been doing well since quite some time. We were expecting this performance from the team. I congratulate the team for this feat,” Shri Chaudhary said.

Semifinal result: Gujarat lost to Haryana 2-3: Oishiki Joardar bt Prithoki Chakraborti 11-9, 11-8, 11-7 (3-0), Riya Jayswal lost to Suhana Saini 2-11, 7-11, 11-13 (0-3), Jiya Trivedi lost to Saanvi Dargan 11-6, 11-9, 5-11, 4-11, 6-11 (2-3), : Oishiki Joardar bt Suhana Saini 11-6, 1-11, 11-8, 4-11, 11-8 (3-2), Riya Jayswal lost to Prithoki Chakraborti 5-11, 5-11, 4-11 (0-3)

Quarterfinal result: Gujarat bt Rajasthan 3-0: Riya Jayswal bt Samaira Sharma 11-7, 8-11, 11-6, 11-9, Oishiki Joardar bt Sunidhi Dewan 11-4, 11-7, 11-9, Jiya Trivedi bt Anushka Acharya 12-10, 14-12, 2-11, 11-7).

Gujarat’s group results: Beat Jharkhand 3-0, Beat Assam 3-1, Beat Meghalaya 3-0