Two teenage bridge players from Mumbai have helped their international six-player team achieve victory at the 2026 World Youth Transnational Championship, currently under way in Hefei, China. Viha Gahrotra and Ananya Mehta, both students of Dhirubhai Ambani International School (DAIS), combined with pairs from England and Norway to finish first in the Final B of the U16 Teams event, capping three intense days of competition against many of the world’s finest young players.
Competing in the U16 category under the name “Triple Trouble”, the team brought together three pairs from three countries: Viha and Ananya of India, Aleks Blicharz and Wilf Marshall of England, and Markus Hansen Moe and Brage Hansen Moe of Norway. United by the game, the six players formed one of the most distinctive line-ups in a field of 98 teams gathered from across the globe.
Triple Trouble made its mark early, qualifying 10th out of the 98 competing teams to reach the championship rounds. That strong showing set up a run to the Final B, where the team went head-to-head with the tournament’s elite for a title.
What followed was a nail-biting finish. Triple Trouble took first place in the Final B with a score of 98.61, narrowly edging a team from host nation China, which finished on 98.20. Fittingly for a contest this close, the outcome came down to the very last hand of the final round, a knife-edge conclusion to three days of concentration, nerve and teamwork.
Spurring the girls’ progress have been their mentors Rajeev Khandelwal and his wife, Himani Khandelwal, both highly ranked bridge players in their own right, who have mentored Viha and Ananya out of a shared passion for the game. Their guidance has helped the pair grow from promising juniors into players capable of holding their own on the world stage.
The gold in Hefei builds on a breakthrough result the previous year. Both Viha and Ananya represented India in the U16 category at the 19th World Youth Team Championships in Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy, an event that made history when, for the first time, an Indian U16 side reached the final four. There they competed alongside France, Poland and the United States, narrowly missing a podium finish. Twelve months on, the pair have gone one better, returning from a world championship with a title to their names.
Viha’s parents are thrilled as her success on the world stage adds to the gold that Viha’s brother Vir Gahrotra, also a student of Dhirubhai Ambani International School, won while representing India at the Pole and Aerial Sport World Championship in the Junior B Amateur Men’s category, held in Hungary in December 2025.
For Viha and Ananya, two young players from Mumbai, the win in Hefei is both a milestone and a marker of what may lie ahead, further proof that Indian youth bridge is increasingly at home among the world’s best.
