Mumbai: Shri Arvind Prabhoo, President, PTKS (Prabodhankar Thackeray Krida Sankul) Vile Parle, honoured the table tennis players from Maharashtra who returned with medals from the 20th World Veterans’ Table Tennis Championship, which recently concluded in Muscat, Oman. The Indian contingent had bagged 24 medals, with Maharashtra paddlers winning 15 of the medals, at the biennial event, conducted by International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).
The medal winners were feted by Prabhoo at a felicitation function jointly hosted by PTKS and The Suburban Table Tennis Association (TSTTA), here, in Mumbai according to a TSTTA media release.
Leading the medal charge was TSTTA’s Yogesh Desai who won a Gold medal in men’s 70+ singles. The doubles pair of Ulhas Shirke and Pinakin Sampat also bagged a Gold medal in the men’s 70+ doubles while Mangal Saraf clinched India’s third Gold medal in the women’s doubles 65+ section. Saraf had partnered Rita Jain from Madhya Pradesh to emerge champion.
The three Silver medal winners from Maharashtra were Suhasini Bakre in the women’s 60+ singles, Shilpa Joshi in the women’s 50+ singles. The third silver medal was won by Pinakin Sampat (his second medal) partnering Etsuko Iseki from Japan in winning the mixed 70+ doubles.
The Maharashtra players who won eight bronze medals were Shruti Joshi partnering Anjana Rao (women’s 40+ doubles), Anil Rasam and Rajesh Mudam (men’s 60+ doubles), Neeta Kulkarni and Suhasini Bakre (women’s 60+ doubles), Manish Rawat and Shilpa Joshi (mixed 50+ doubles), Dr. Anagha Joshi and Shilpa Joshi (women’s 50+ doubles), Moon Moon Mukherjee (women’s 45+ singles), Sadiya Vanjara partnering Ayeswarya Pai Bhat (women’s 45+ doubles) and Mangal Saraf (women’s 65+ singles).
Besides the medal winners, Prabhoo also feted all the Maharashtra players who had participated in the World Veterans’ Table Tennis Championship and appreciated the efforts all the state players.
Over 1700 men and women participants in the 40+ to 85+ age groups from 69 countries, including Japan, China, Germany, USA, Finland, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Malaysia, Italy, Iran , Korea, Czech Republic and Norway competed for top honours.
TSTTA Vice-President Dhananjay Sathe, Hon. Secretary Samir Bhate, Guests of Honour S. Ramaswamy, a former India TT player , Praveen Kutty, Head Retail Banking, DCB Bank, Narendra Chhajed from Nasik, Suhas Dandekar, Coordinator of Maharashtra Veterans Committee and other dignitaries which included many TT players were present to applaud the achievements of the Maharashtra players.
