PSPB, West Bengal win youth crowns at table tennis nationals
PSPB claimed the youth boys championships defeating West Bengal 3-1 but their girls retrieved the situation somewhat by winning the crown against Tamil Nadu 3-1 in the final of the youth girls event at Deshbakt Tarun Ram Phukan Indoor Stadium.
- Press Trust of India
- Updated: January 17, 2014 09:33 PM IST
The Petroleum and Sports Promotion Board Academy, led by Abhishek Yadav, thrashed Delhi 3-1 to win the junior boys team title while West Bengal conquered North Bengal 3-2 to annex the junior girls crown in the 75th Junior and Youth National Table Tennis championships, here on Friday.
PSPB claimed the youth boys championships defeating West Bengal 3-1 but their girls retrieved the situation somewhat by winning the crown against Tamil Nadu 3-1 in the final of the youth girls event at Deshbakt Tarun Ram Phukan Indoor Stadium.
The junior boys final, in a way, was a foregone conclusion though Delhi did put up some kind of a fight, managing to take a game off PSPB as the defensive Lalrinpuia found the going tough against Delhi's left-handed Sabhay Virmani who won 14-12, 7-11, 11-8, 8-11, 7-11.
But then Abhishek killed whatever ambitions that Delhi might have had, winning both his singles as well as combining with Birdie Boro to take the doubles.
Surprisingly, North Bengal resisted West Bengal, taking the final the entire distance. In fact, West Bengal did not begin well as Ayhika Mukhjeree lost to Sagarika Mukherjee 6-11, 11-6, 9-11, 6-11, but Priyadarshini Das levelled team score soon after beating Anushka Dutta.
However, what turned the tide in favour of West Bengal was their doubles victory. The West Bengal pair of Ayhika and Sumana Saha defeated North Bengal's Sagarika and Oishwarya in straight games to go 2-1 up.
The reverse singles saw West and North Bengals sharing a rubber each as the matches went along expected lines-Priyadarshini losing to Sagarika and Ayhika winning against Anushka Dutta.
The fortunes of Tamil Nadu posting a title triumph hinged on S Amrutha Pushpak who needed to win at least one of her singles. That did not happen as she lost her opening singles to Ayhika Mukherjee 3-1 and then lost her reverse singles to West Bengal's main player Krittwika Sinha Roy.
N Vidya of Tamil Nadu was the lone winner against West Bengal's weak link Anushree Haza 11-4, 11-8, 11-2.