Sport - Table Tennis   

Soumyajit, Swarna triumph

By Our Sports Reporter

Tamil Nadu's J. Swarna (left) and CoE's Soumyajit Sarkar, the girls' and boys' singles champions. in the LIC National junior table tennis at Kochi on Tuesday.

KOCHI DEC. 2. The two took time to settle down, had their moments of worry. And in the end, it made their victory taste all the more sweeter. The SAI-Centre of Excellence's Soumyajit Sarkar and Tamil Nadu's J. Swarna celebrated their maiden title in the LIC junior National table tennis championship at the Rajiv Gandhi indoor stadium here on Tuesday.

The top-seeded Soumyajit defeated seventh-seeded left-hander Zubin Kumar (PSPB Academy) 4-2 in the boys' final, while the fourth-seeded Swarna pipped State-mate K.Shamini 4-3 for the girls' crown.

For a youngster who had been impressive all through the event, Soumyajit surprisingly appeared scrappy and error-prone in his young career's most crucial match. Zubin won the opener and led 2-1 after three games.

But once Soumyajit got into the groove in the fourth game, there was no looking back. The 15-year-old unleashed a series of his favourite top-spinners and won three games in a row which brought him his second national title. Soumyajit had won the cadet boys' title at Kozhikode four years ago.

Swarna led 3-1 in the girls' final, but a little later, she almost let the match slip out of her hands when Shamimi bounced back superbly to level the tie 3-3 and lead 3-0 in the decider.

"Yes, seriously, I thought it was all going away,'' said the 12th standard student of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (Kilpauk, Chennai).

For a girl who loves to attack and jab, it must have been quite unsettling for Swarna when she was forced to `push' frequently by Shamini. Shamini's strategy clearly annoyed Swarna for she was unable to unleash her quick top-spinners often. And slowly, Shamini clawed her way back.

Realising that Shamini's trap was leading her to the swamp, Swarna quickly switched to an attacking mode in the decider. She levelled at four and raced to a 10-4 lead. And the reward was her maiden national title. The 16-year-old had twice been unlucky in the sub-junior national finals earlier.

The Kerala Sports Minister K. Sudhakaran was the chief guest and the Ernakulam District Collector Gyanesh Kumar gave away the prizes.

The results (finals): Boys' singles: 1-Soumyajit Sarkar (Centre of Excellence, Kolkata) bt Zubin Kumar (PSPB Academy) 6-11, 11-9, 6-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-5.

Girls' singles: J. Swarna (TN) bt K. Shamini (TN) 7-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-8, 9-11, 6-11, 11-7.

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