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Tuesday, Sep 16, 2008
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Sport - Table Tennis

Sathiyan — India’s shining star

Special Correspondent

— Photo: K. Pichumani

G.Sathiyan.

CHENNAI: Young G. Sathiyan is slowly but surely emerging as the brightest junior table tennis star in the country.

His latest success — three gold medals — in the Indian junior open-ITTF world junior circuit in Pune is a manifestation of the tremendous potential of this young talent, a pupil of the former national champion V. Chandrasekhar’s Chandra Academy.

An excited 15-year old Sathiyan is just back in the city after bagging the cadet singles and doubles titles (partnering Soumyajit Ghosh) and the team title in a tournament where players from 13 other countries took part.

Sathiyan incidentally had won the cadet title last year also when the event was held in Goa.

Sathiyan, a sensation in the local circuit (he won three titles in a recent state-ranking tournament), is a studious 11th standard pupil of Kola Perumal Chetty Vaishnav SSS.

Best foot forward

At Pune, the lad put his best foot forward in beating the top seed Niwakoki of Japan for the cadet title.

“I was trailing 1-2 in game score and down 9-10 in the fourth,” said Sathiyan on how he bounced back from a match point down to turn the tables.

How did the transformation come? “Just playing with a calm mind and clear focus,” he said while giving credit to his coach Bhavani Mukherjee for the pep talk.

He also named the ITTF coach Joseph for the advice he had given in the short three-day camp prior to the tournament.

Sathiyan had beaten a Singaporean (Pang Xue) in the semifinals and a Korean Jo Kyung in the quarterfinals. Partnering Soumyajit, the pair beat a Korean pair for the gold.

Leading the way

In the team final too, India as top seed beat Korea 3-0 with Sathiyan and Soumyajit doing the star role.

In addition, both Sathiyan and Soumyajit had finished as semifinalists in the junior singles to earn a bronze each.

“I dedicate this win to my coach Chandrasekhar and my parents,” he said while thanking his school principal for the encouragement.

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