India sweep titles at South Asian Jr Table Tennis

KARACHI - Indian junior table tennis stars placed the seal of their supremacy on the four-nation Maymar South Asian Table Tennis Championships when they grabbed all finals in the individual events after annexing the team events in the three-day event which concluded here Friday at the Toyota Gymkhana of Habib Public School.

India finished the championships with ten gold and four silver while Sri Lanka collected six silver. Pakistan finished with 10 bronze, Nepal with nine bronze and Sri Lanka with one bronze.

The Indian and Sri Lankan teams have qualified from South Asia to play in the Asian Junior Championships which will be held from July 23 in Singapore.

Shubham Sharma of India clinched the junior under-18 boys title defeating countrymate Raj Mondal in a six-game final which he won 11-5, 11-1, 10-12, 11-8, 8-11, 11-8.

However, the contest of the final day of the championships which had attracted Nepal, Sri Lanka and host Pakistan was the final of girls under-18 final in which like other finals two Indians Soumi Mondal and Pooja Vijay were pitted against each other.

The contest went to seven games before Soumi Mondal clinched it by four games to three margins with the score being 9-11, 11-9, 11-9, 9-11, 8-11, 11-9, and 11-3 in her favour.

Indian cadet players of under-15 years of age earlier won girls and boys final.

For host Pakistan, the only player who came up to the standards of Indian and Sri Lankan players was Abdul Rahim who entered the semi-finals of boys under-18 singles.

He faced Shubham Sharma who went to win the title, in the semi final and was easily beaten in straight games 13-11, 11-1, 11-4, 11-8.