By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The 12th South Asian Federation (SAF) Junior Table Tennis Championship kicked off with a grand opening ceremony at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium here on Sunday.
The main attraction of the opening ceremony of the first international sporting event in the region was the march past of all the six participating nations excluding Maldives who are yet to arrive.
Deputy Chief Minister Bindo M Lanong who graced the occasion as the chief guest formally declared the games open. Besides Lanong, other dignitaries who were present on the occasion include Urban Affairs Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh, Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) general secretary BR Choudhury, Meghalaya Table Tennis Association (MTTA) president RG Lyngdoh among others.
“Sports is the only instrument that can bring people from different countries together. The facilities being provided by MTTA is one of the best in the world and I am very happy at their capability,” Lanong said.
Former national champion and Arjuna awardee Kamlesh Mehta was also present at the inaugural function which was witnessed by hundreds of people.
Meanwhile, Indian boys entered the semifinal after topping Group A outplaying Pakistan and Bhutan during the inaugural day of the SAF Junior Table Tennis Championships.
The Indian boys team, comprising of Sudhanshu Grover, Abhishek Yadav, Vivek Bhargava and R Anandraj, defeated Bhutan 3-0 and overcame Pakistan by a similar margin in the three-team Group A. The group leaders will now clash with the team frinishing second from Group B in the semifinals.
The hosts also won their first match in the Junior Girls, Cadet Boys’ and Girls’ category respectively. Unlike in the Junior Boys section, which is played in two stages, the other team events in the championship are decided on a single-group league, where the teams will meet each other to decide on the top three positions.
Contrary to expectations, it was not a cake walk for the Indian boys against both Bhutan and Pakistan. Though on both occasions, the matches were decided before the fourth game, there were some hiccups for Bhargava and Grover who had to struggle a bit after being in good positions. Indian coach Sandeep Gupta admitted that the boys need to pull up their socks to ensure complete domination in the championship.
It may be mentioned that Mallika Bhandarkar, (World Ranking 95), Abhishek Yadav, (175), Utkarsh Gupta (37), Spoorthy Karnam (35) and Mizoram’s Lalrin Puia, who won last year’s US Open Singles are all out to bag a ticket to China for the Asian Junior TT Championship next month.
Meanwhile, with the late arrival of the Sri Lankan team, the morning matches in Group B had to be rescheduled.
Results:
Junior Boys Group A: Round 1:
India beat Bhutan 3–0 (Vivek Bhargava bt Namgay Dorji 11-6, 11-7, 14-12; Sudhanshu Grover bt Raj Kumar 11-5, 14-12, 11-6; R Anandraj bt Tashi Jamtsho 11-8, 11-4, 11-5.)
Round 2 :
India beat Pakistan 3–0 (Abishek Yadav bt Rameez Muhammad 11-0, 11-2, 11-8; Vivek Bhargav bt Virk Salman Ahmad Tahir 11-6, 11-7, 11-5; R Anand Raj bt Khurshid Tabish 11-8, 9-11, 11-4, 11-4.)
Junior Girls:
India beat Pakistan 3–0 (Tennison Reeth bt Sheikh abeera Ali 11-4, 11-6, 11-6; Mallika Bhandarkar bt Babar Farwa 11-5, 11-8, 8-11, 11-3;Narasimha Priya bt Saeed Iqra 11-3, 11-5, 11-2.)
Cadet Boys:
India beat Bangladesh 3-0 (Utkarsh Gupta bt Emran Hossain Hridoy 11-4, 11-4, 11-4; Lalrin Puia bt Mohammad Javed Ahmed 11-6, 11-4, 11-7; Birdie Boro/Lalrin Puia bt Emran Hossain/Javed Ahmed 11-5, 11-9, 6-11, 9-11, 11-5)
Cadet Girls:
India beat Nepal 3-0 (Karnam Spoorthy bt Sonu Thapa Magar 11-3, 11-1, 11-5; Ayihika Mukherjee bt Sukriti Shreshtha 11-1, 11-1, 11-3; Ayihika Mukherjee/Suthirtha Mukherjee bt Sonu Thapa/Sukiriti Shreshtha 11-2, 11-4, 11-6)