Khwaish, Pratha win gold in Qatar tourney

Gandhidham 25, January : Two Gujarat paddlers-Khwaish Lotia and Pratha Pawar-did the nation proud as they grabbed gold medals in the ongoing WTT Youth Contender Doha 2024 table tennis tournament.

In the U-13 girls’ event, Khwaish put up a perfect show and stormed into the finals after crushing Leen Sager 3-0 of Saudi Arabia in her semi-final tie.

The Indian hardly broke any sweat as she cleaned up Baharain’s Kenda Mahmoud 3-0 to win the gold medal.

Ahmedabad-girl Pratha decimated Pakistan’s Hoor Fawad 3-0 in the U-17 girl’s semi-final and brushed aside Hend Zaza of Saudi Arabia with the same score line to lay her hands on the winner’s trophy.

There was a double delight for Pratha as she teamed up with Sujal Kukadia and entered the final of the U-15 mixed doubles event where they went down 1-3 to the German pairing of Alexander Uhing and Elisa Meyer to settle for silver.

Two other paddlers from Gujarat-Dhyey Jani and Aayush Tanna- managed to make it to the quarterfinal of the boys U-17 event but failed to cross the hurdle. While

Dhyey lost 0-3 to Austria’s Julian Rzihauscek, his countrymate Aayush faced similar fate in his 0-3 loss to Ignas Sisanovas of Lithuania.

Gujarat State Table Tennis Association president Shri Pramod Chaudhary congratulated the players and said: “It’s a matter of great pride that the youth paddlers of Gujarat are now leaving their mark at the international circuit.”