Table tennis test event for South Asian Games concludes

From Our Correspondent

Shillong, Jan 23: Meghalaya swept up all but one of the gold medals on offer today at the table tennis tourment for North East juniors here, with only Manipur denying them a clean sweep in the boys singles fil.

Five states (Meghalaya, Aruchal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur and Sikkim) took part in the test event for the upcoming South Asian Games at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Sports Hall, which acted a prelude to next month's SAG. Co-host Shillong will hold the table tennis discipline.

All the mixed doubles matches were held on Saturday, with Meghalaya's Tanushree Das Gupta and Suranjit Dey reaching the fil along with Camelia Diengdoh and Bibek Das. The former pair took the gold with an 11-9, 11-9, 4-11, 7-11, 11-7 victory.

That was Tanushree's first gold of the day, adding to her girls doubles fil win yesterday, and she then added another in the junior girls fil when she went up against fellow Meghalayan Anwesha Choudhury. Tanushree came from two games to one down to beat her opponent 11-4, 9-11, 7-11, 11-6, 11-6, 11-8 in the best of seven-game fil.

The boys fil was also an all-Meghalaya affair. Bibek Das and Prithvi Dey won the match by four games to two, 12-14, 11-7, 3-11, 11-8, 11-7.

The action concluded with T Yogesh Singh (Meghalaya) facing K Rohit of Manipur. This was the most one-sided match of the day, with Rohit coming through in straight games 11-6, 11-3, 11-9, 11-9. The champion had it a little easy in the opening two games, but Yogesh gave the home fans some hope that he could mount a comeback in the third and fourth, but Rohit persisted and ultimately triumphed.

Yesterday Tanushree and Camelia beat I Molisha and Binita Thiyam in the girls doubles fil 6-11, 11-5, 6-11, 11-3, 11-4. On Thursday Manipur finished first ahead of Meghalaya, while Sikkim came third in the boys team event. In the girls team event, Meghalaya took top spot, followed by Manipur and Sikkim in second and third respectively.

At the closing ceremony, Commissioner and Secretary, Sports and Youth Affairs, FR Kharkongor congratulated the Meghalaya Table Tennis Association for the successful tourment. The state has hosted an intertiol table tennis event before - the the South Asian Junior Table Tennis Championships 2012 - and Kharkongor reminded the gathering of the success of that tourment and felt sure that Meghalaya will be able to once again organise a wonderful table tennis event at the South Asian Games.

Other speakers on the occasion were Meghalaya State Olympic Association Working President  John Kharshiing and Meghalaya Table Tennis Association President RG Lyngdoh.

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