Brussels: India’s young paddlers Manush Shah and Raegan Albuquerque clinched the bronze at the Belgium Junior and Cadet Open, a part of the ITTF Junior Circuit Premium, here on Friday. The duo paired up with Iran’s Amin Ahmadian and Radin Khayyam to win the medal in the junior boys’ team event.
The Indo-Iranian team didn’t have the best of starts against local lads Adrien Rassenfosse, Nicolas Degros and Olav Kosolosky as Iran’s Amin Ahmadian went down meekly (0-3) to Adrien in the first match. However, Manush Shah promptly restored parity with a 3-1 win over Olav Kosolosky.
Raegan Albuquerque couldn’t keep up the momentum as he lost out to Nicolas Degros in a closely fought encounter (1-3). World No. 21 (U-18) Manush then displayed grit to register another 3-1 win over Adrien Rassenfosse to take the contest into the last match. Iran’s Amin came into his own to seal a 3-2 victory over Olav to carry the team into the semifinals.
In the semis, the mixed team of Indians and Iranians were up against the combination of Ryoichi Yoshiyama and Takeru Kashiwa of Japan and Nathan Xu of New Zealand. The Indo-Iranian team gave a sterling fight but went down 0-3 to settle for the bronze. In the junior mixed girls’ team category, the combination of Manushree Patil, Swastika Ghosh and Guatemala’s Lucia Cordero couldn’t match up against the Chinese Taipei team and capitulated in the quarterfinals.
