Sameer Bhate hogged the limelight winning three gold medals in the recently concluded MMTTC-PTKS 1st State Ranking Masters’ Table Tennis tournament, played at the Prabodhankar Thackeray Krida Sankul, Vile Parle.
Bhate clinched his first medal when he defeated Tejas Naik in three games at 11-5, 11-6, and 11-6, in the men’s 49+ singles final. Later, Bhate partnering Kiran Salian won his second gold medal winning the men’s 39+ and above doubles title. He and Salian defeated the pairing of Naveen Salian and Rajesh Singh in four well-contested games at 13-11, 6-11, 11-5, and 11-8
Bhate grabbed his third title in the Men’s 39+ & 49+ Team event in leading the PTKS team to victory. The PTKS captain Bhate won both his singles matches against T-Lac players Divyendu C. and Amol B. Sameer received good support from Kiran Salian who defeated Divyendu in the third match.
In the women’s singles 39+ event, debutant Priyanka Ghumre from Kalidas Sports Club, Mulund won her first title. Priyanka also went on to win her second gold medal when partnering Sunanda Rao they won the Women’s 39+ & above team event.
Jogesh Motwani also put up a good show winning a double gold. Jogesh beat Pramod Desai 3-2 in a closely-contested finals to win his first Gold. Earlier in semi-finals he had a tough time, before overcoming Sarosh Shroff with 3-2 win. His second Gold came from Men’s 59+ team event, where once again he played a crucial role in his team’s victory.
Current National Champion in Men’s 69+ category Ulhas Shirke, repeated his performance defeating reigning World Masters’ Champion Yogesh Desai in a closely fought finals of Men’s 69+ Singles. Ulhas had beaten Deepak Dudhane 3-1 in the semi-finals.
Results (all finals) – Men’s 39+ singles: Rupesh Gharat beat Saurav Mohite 12-10, 11-7, 11-7.
Men’s 49+ singles: Sameer Bhate beat Tejas Naik 11-5, 11-6, 11-6.
Men’s 59+ singles : Jogesh Motwani beat Pramod Desai 11-5, 6-11, 9-11, 11-7 11-9.
Men’s 64+ singles: Anil Rasam beat Mahesh Shetye 11-3, 9-11, 11-4, 12-10.
Men’s 69+ singles: Ulhas Shirke beat Yogesh Desai 11-9, 3-11,5-11,11-8, 11-9.
Men’s 74+ singles: Jagadish Anaready beat Gyan Jain 11-6, 11-4,11-9.
Women’s Singles 39+: Priyanka Ghumre beat Dr. Reena Bhagat 3 -2.
Women’s 49+: Shravani Dhapre beat Trupti Machave 3-0
Women’s 59+: Swati Agharkar beat Madshavi Sawant 3-0
Women’s 64+: Suhasini Bakre beat Sunanda Rao 3-1.
