The Hindu : Sport / Table Tennis : India sweeps team titles

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 21, 2005

Sport

Sport - Table Tennis

India sweeps team titles

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: As anticipated, India swept the team titles with comprehensive victories over Sri Lanka in final league matches of both sections of the South Asian table tennis championship at the NDMC Indoor Stadium here on Wednesday. With this, the two countries have completed the formalities of qualifying for the team events of the Asian junior championship to be held at the same venue from July 23.

After scoring over Nepal, Maldives and Nepal, it was time for India and Sri Lanka to decide the top-two slots in the five-nation league. As it turned out, the Indians did not give the Lankans much of a chance. In the boys' section, Aniket Koparkar, Soumyajit Sarkar and R. Abhishek took turns to win in straight games. Only Soumyajit, the reigning National junior champion, spent a few anxious moments in the third game against T. Samaraweera of the second singles. He tossed away three match-points before saving three game-points to emerge victorious.

Better show

The Sri Lankan girls were expected to put up a better show since their number one player Kalpani Herath was being seen as someone capable of delaying the inevitable. Kalpani took the third game off J. Swarna in the second singles.

Thereafter, Swarna squandered an early lead in the fourth as Kalpani made it 6-6. But the Indian girl kept her cool and did not allow her rival another point. Madhurika Patkar had given India a winning start.

In the third singles, National champion K. Shamini did not take long to settle the issue against Srimali Wimalaratna.

Earlier, the two-member Bhutan girls' team had to concede all the matches after the first two singles as the rules require at least three members for participation in team events.

But Bhutan was allowed after the Table Tennis Federation of India saw no harm in giving the girls an opportunity to play a couple of matches.

Meanwhile in the cadet singles, Indians moved closer to winning the titles in both sections. Neha Aggarwal and Divya Deshpande ensured a 1-2 finish for India in cadet girls' section while cadet boys' top seed Shubham Sharma set up the title-clash with second seed Sukitha Wicramanayaka of Sri Lanka. However, the cadet events are not considered part of the championship but were included to give exposure to the younger players.

The results:

Team championship (league):

Boys: India beat Sri Lanka 3-0 (Aniket Koparkar bt Tharindu Samaraweera 11-8, 11-4, 11-4; Soumyajit Sarkar bt Sajith Priyadarshana 11-8, 11-7, 15-13; R. Abhishek bt Gihan Liyanage 11-5, 11-7, 11-9); Maldives bt Bhutan 3-1; Sri Lanka bt Bhutan 3-0; Nepal bt Maldives 3-0; India bt Bhutan 3-0; Sri Lanka bt Nepal 3-0; India bt Maldives 3-0; Nepal bt Bhutan 3-0; India bt Nepal 3-0; Sri Lanka bt Maldives 3-0.

Standings: 1. India, 2. Sri Lanka, 3. Nepal, 4, Maldives, 5. Bhutan.

Girls: India beat Sri Lanka 3-0 (Madhurika Patkar bt Ishara Madurangi 12-10, 11-8, 12-10; J. Swarna bt Kalpani Herath 11-5, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6; K. Shamini bt Srimali Wimalaratna 11-8, 11-4, 11-2); Sri Lanka bt Bhutan 2-0 (condeded); Nepal bt Maldives 3-2; India bt Bhutan 2-0 (conceded); Sri Lanka bt Nepal 3-1; India bt Maldives 3-0; Nepal bt Bhutan 1-1 (conceded); India bt Nepal 3-0; Sri Lanka bt Maldives 3-0; Maldives bt Bhutan 2-0 (conceded).

Standings: 1. India, 2. Sri Lanka, 3. Nepal, 4, Maldives, 5. Bhutan.

Cadet boys:

Semifinals: Shubham Sharma (Ind) bt Mohit Verma (Ind) 11-5, 15-13, 11-6; Sukitha Wicramanayaka (Sri) bt Ahmed Sharufan (Mdv) 11-2, 11-6, 11-4.

Quarterfinals: Shubham bt Mohammad Ibrahim (Mdv) 11-8, 11-1, 11-3; Verma bt Buddika Walagampala (Sri) 12-10, 11-9, 11-9; Shrufan w.o. Soumyajit Ghosh (Ind); Wickramanayaka bt Suraj Sharma (Bhu) 11-8, 11-1, 11-5.

Cadet girls:

Semifinals: Neha Aggarwal (Ind) bt Nadini Abayagunawardana (Sri) 11-4, 11-4, 11-4; Divya Deshpande (Ind) bt Pooja Sahastrabudhe (Ind) 9-11, 11-6, 7-11, 11-8, 11-8.

First round: Neha bt Yeshi Choden (Bhu) 11-5, 11-7, 11-3; Nadini bt Mariyam Sahamath (Mdv) 11-4, 11-3, 11-5; Divya bt Fathmath Ifaga (Mdv ) 11-3, 11-5, 11-6; Pooja bt Ishara Madurangi (Sri) 14-12, 13-11, 11-5.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport