GUWAHATI, Jan 20 � Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) dominated the 75th Junior and Youth National and Inter State Table Tennis Championship clinching five titles out of eight.
On the final day of the six-day championship, organised by the Assam Table Tennis Association (ATTA) under the guidance of Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI), at the Tarun Ram Phookan Indoor Stadium here today, Manika Batra and G Sathiyan won the Youth Girls and Youth Boys singles crown (all PSPB) while the Junior Boys and Girls titles went to Abhishek Yadav (PSPB) and Oishwarya Deb (North Bengal).
Fourth seed Manika defeated No. 2 Krittwika Sinha Roy of West Bengal 4-1 for her maiden crown while the unseeded Sathiyan downed giant-killer KR Rohit of Tamil Nadu 4-0 in what turned out to be an one-sided youth finals.
Oishwarya Deb beat favourite Sagarika Mukherjee (West Bengal) 4-0 for the Junior Girls crown. Abhishek Yadav made amends for his Youth Boys title loss to claim the Junior Boys crown, blanking out West Bengal�s Arjun Ghosh 4-0.
Sathiyan has completed the double crown in the championship winning the Youth Boys doubles also.
All the winners also pocketed a fat sum each from the total prize purse of Rs 4.76 lakh, while the top eight finishers in all sections were also suitably rewarded with prize money.
Sathiyan, who had to play from the qualifiers, had to prove a point or two and he precisely did that beating Rohit who was the unexpected dark horse in the championships.
Manika was in good form throughout the championship and it was no surprising that she was able to beat Krittwika.
The left-handed Abhishek simply went on a rampage against West Bengal�s Arjun Ghosh without giving him any scope for a comeback. Arjun, who combined with Anirban, to finish runners-up in two doubles evnets, was devoid of imagination and stamina which took a heavy toll on him in the Junior Boys final.
Oishwarya has proved a point to her West Bengal rival and No. 1 India player Sagarika Mukherjee that when it came to the final, she was no pushover. Indeed, Sagarika realized it too late in the day as the North Bengal girl ran through her opponent to lift the main cup.
Assam go empty handed: Host Assam miserably failed to show any credibility in the championship. Non of the State paddlers could reach the last-eight stage in any of the open events.
In the team events, Assam Youth Boys, Junior Girls and Youth Girls managed to qualify for the knock out stage but could not progress further in the team events.
In the open events also all the State players failed to make any mark as they were eliminated from the preliminary stage.
Final results: Youth Boys (Singles): G Sathiyan (PSPB) bt KR Rohit (TN) 4-0 (11-7, 11-7, 11-5, 11-8). Doubles: G Sathiyan/Sourav Saha (PSPB) bt Arjun Ghosh/Anirban Ghosh (WB) 3-1 (12-10, 14-12, 7-11, 11-4).
Youth Girls (singles): Manika Batra (PSPB) bt Krittwika Sinha Roy (WB) 4-1 (11-2, 11-5, 8-11, 11-7, 11-4). Doubles: Final: Krittwika Sinha Roy/Ayhika Mukherjee (WB) bt Oishwarya Deb/Sagarika Mukherjee (NB) 3-0 (11-2, 11-5, 11-6).
Junior Boys (singles): Abhishek Yadav (PSPB) bt Arjun Ghosh (WB) 4-0 (12-10, 11-5, 11-6, 11-8). Doubles: Lalrinpuia/Lalhunlua (PSPBA) bt Arjun Ghosh/Anirban Ghosh (WB) 3-1 (5-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-5).
Junior Girls (Singles): Oishwarya Deb (NB) bt Sagarika Mukherjee (WB) 4-0 (11-8, 11-7, 11-8, 11-9). Doubles: Priyadarshini Das/Sumana Saha (WB) bt Sagarika Mukherjee/Oishwarya Deb (NB) 3-1 (11-9, 111, 11-8, 118).
