Junior International TT tourney kicks off in city
SHILLONG: Meghalaya girls stole the show on day 1 of the Junior Invitational (International) Table Tennis Tournament organised by the Rilbong Sports and Cultural Club as part of its Diamond Jubilee celebrations on the Rilbong community hall premises here on Thursday.
With some spirited performances the State girls kept at bay seasoned junior level players from Nepal to take the top spot in the team’s event on Thursday. Meanwhile, in the boys’ category it was Nepal that stood defiant.
The junior TT prodigies from Nepal, Bhutan and Meghalaya were battling it out in the three-day event being conducted under the aegis of the Meghalaya Table Tennis Association.
Former Deputy Chief Minister Bindo M Lanong declared the event open in the presence of RSCC president Manas Chaudhuri and others.
Lanong also lauded the Rilbong club for organising the tournament which, besides providing a platform to young talents, promises to bring Meghalaya closer to India’s Himalayan neighbours. A TT player himself, Lanong urged the youngsters, especially the visitors, to play the game in the right spirit and enjoy their stay in Shillong which was like “a home away from home for them.”
Lanong, who was the runner-up during a college TT event in the 1980s, also tried his hands at the game along with Chaudhuri much to the delight of the spectators.
Earlier, Chaudhuri too welcomed the visiting contingents and the home team and hoped that the event, which has been approved by the Table Tennis Federation of India, would create a special bond between Nepal, Bhutan and Meghalaya.
As the day’s action began, Meghalaya’s Tanushree D Gupta breezed past Nepal’s Sikka Suwal and Sonu Thapa in the girls’ team event’s singles and reverse singles encounters. Tanushree beat Suwal 11-3, 11-3, 12-10 in the girls’ singles and tamed Thapa 11-3, 11-6, 11-6 in the reverse singles event.
Meghalaya’s Camelia Diengdoh beat Nepal’s Sikka Suwal 11-6, 11-9, 7-11, 11-4 in the reverse singles. Diengdoh, however, went down to Nepal’s Sonu Thapa in the first game of the day.
The Diengdoh-Gupta duo was beaten 10-12, 11-6, 9-11, 8-11 by Thapa and Suwal in the doubles event. Meghalaya eventually prevailed 3-2 over Nepal in the girls’ team event in round 1.
The Meghalaya girls then made a clean sweep (3-0) against Bhutan.
In the boys’ team event, Nepal stole the show in round 1 with junior South Asian Games players Santoo Shrestha and Mani Kumar Lama making light work of the state duo of T Yogesh Singh and Suranjit Dey in the singles events. The doubles match was well contested with Santoo and Mani beating their rivals 5-11, 13-11, 4-11, 11-5, 11-7.
The Meghalaya boys came back strong in the 2nd round against Bhutan winning it 3-1. Again in the boys team event (round 3) Nepal’s Ritiz Joshi beat Meghalaya’s Sumit 3-0, Santoo beat Leki 3-0 and the Nepalese duo of Bipul/Narayan beat Meghalaya’s Sumit/Leki 3-2. At the end of Day 1, Meghalaya led in the girls’ team event and Nepal in the boys’ event. While Nepal have fielded a 10-member team, Bhutan are here four players. Hosts Meghalaya have the biggest 16-member contingent led by coach Banshan Diengdoh.