SHILLONG, June 18 � The Indian boys and girls, in all the four categories, made a clean sweep of the team titles on offer in the ongoing SAF Junior Table Tennis Championships at the Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Complex indoor hall here today.
By finishing on top, the junior boys and girls also booked their passage for the Asian Junior Championships, to be held at Jiangyin (China) from July 11 and 16. With two teams in the junior sections going through, the boys from Nepal, who finished with the silver, made their maiden entry into the Asian Juniors.
Sri Lanka, who were the real contender for the second slot in the boys�s category, had to be satisfied with their girls making the grade. No doubt, the Nepalese boys played really well, but the Lankans were done in by the late arrival to the Meghalaya capital and having to play immediately without any rest.
Coming back to the boys win in the final, the Nepalese proved to be a mismatch as the results would indicate. Indeed, Abhiskeh Yadav started in style but became a little edgy in the second game to be extended a bit by Bilash Shrestha when the latter for the first time led 10-9. The Indian, however, steadied to control his forehand smashes to win 12-10. There onwards it was Yadav�s show as he put India 1-0 ahead with a 11-5, 12-10, 11-3 win. Sudhanshu Grover defeated Mani Lama 11-2, 11-, 6, 11-6 and Vivek Bhargav completed the assault with 11-6, 11-4, 11-9 win over Anish Shrestha and the gold.
Coach Sandeep Gupta while praising the Nepalese opponents said the competitive edge in the final was lacking. Our boys could have done still better if they had stiffer opponents. That would have given us a chance to assess how good they are faced with a strong opposition, he said.
The coach, however, warned that the Asian Juniors will be a tough competition and the boys will have to prepare themselves well to meet the challenge.
In other categories, which are played on single-group league formats, the Indians not only kept a clean slate against their opponents but also saw to it that they didn�t lose a single game. They just about went through the motions and decimated their rivals 3-0. Of course, there were some matches in which the Indians were stretched but none of the players allowed their opponents any luxury of taking a game off them.
That, in a nutshell, proves the roller-coaster ride of India�s young paddlers and their supremacy in the region.
