Mumbai: India’s young paddlers continued their medal rush on the world stage, grabbing as many as 7 medals, including a gold and a silver, in the Oman Junior and Cadet Open in Muscat on Friday.
The India B team in the Cadet Girls’ competition were the country’s top performers in this ITTF Premium Junior Circuit event, clinching the gold. Led by Kavya Sree Bhaskar and Nilishma Sarkar, they took on the mighty Chinese Taipei 1 in the title round and came out triumphant.
Kavya Sree led from the front, winning both her singles, including the crucial fourth match of the tie to give the team an easy 3-1 victory. The formidable Chinese Taipei team was represented by Pu-Syuan Cheng and Yuan-Ting Liang of Taipei.
The India A team, comprising of Taneesha S. Kotecha and Suhana Saini, earlier went down fighting to the India B team to settle for the bronze in the same category.
In the Cadet Boys, both the Indian teams fell by the wayside in the semi-finals, to secure a bronze each. The India A team of Aadarsh Om Chettri and Divyansh Srivastava went down 0-3 to Chinese Taipei 1 while the B Team of Raj Preyesh Suresh and Sarth Mishra too lost by an identical margin.
The Junior Girls’ event which was played in a round-robin format saw the India A team of Swastika Ghosh and Anargya Manjunath collect a total of seven points to finish second on the table to earn a silver medal, courtesy their three wins from four matches.
Their 2-3 loss to eventual champions Chinese Taipei cost them the top spot and the gold. The India B team, made up of Munmun Kundu and Anusha Kutumbale, with two wins from four matches collected a total of six points to win the bronze medal.
Led by Shreyaans Goel and Himnakulhpuingheta Jeho, the India B team lost 1-3 to Iran in the round of four to bag the bronze medal in Junior Boys' event
