Thane (Maharashtra), November 2 – Maharashtra paddlers came up with yet another impressive performance in the UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championship (West Zone), winning one silver and three bronze medals across different categories here on Saturday.
The medal hunt for Maharashtra was led by India No.11 (Youth) Shubham Ambre who clinched the silver medal after a 1-4 (11-7, 9-11, 3-11, 8-11, 7-11) loss against India. No 1 (Youth) Manush Shah of Gujarat.
Subham looked to be in great touch and even beat India No. 2 (Youth) Jeet Chandra in the earlier rounds to surge ahead in the tournament. He got into the finals with a stunning 4-0 win against Rosario Do Wesley and looked to give his more fancied opponent a tough fight. Unfortunately for him, Manush proved too strong for him and had to eventually bow out of the tournament with a second-place finish.
Meanwhile, India No. 3 (Junior) Swastika Ghosh cornered the bronze medal in the Junior Girls’ category after she suffered a shock defeat to Vanshika Bhargava of Delhi. Swastika who is fresh from her bronze winning feat in the Oman Open, stretched the India. No 5 (Junior) Vanshika to the limits but could not muster enough and went down by a narrow 3-4 (9-11, 11-6, 11-8, 8-11, 12-10, 9-11) margin.
Earlier, she had beaten Kavyashree Baskar of Tamil Nadu 4-1 (8-11, 11-8, 11-1, 11-9, 11-6) to qualify for the semis.
Swastika logged her name on the medals tally of the Youth Girls’ category as well after she lost in the semis against Anusha Kutumbale of Madhya Pradesh 2-4 (11-4, 8-11, 11-6, 5-11,11-13, 11-4) to bag the bronze medal.
In the quarters, she had beaten Telengana’s Jaiswal Varuni 4-1 (6-11, 11-7, 13-11, 11-8, 11-8) to enter the medal round.
Elsewhere, Manushree Patil also clinched the bronze medal in the Youth Girls’ category. Manushree edged past Shruti Vijay Amrute of PSPB 4-3 (11-8, 12-10, 9-11, 5-11, 11-5, 5-11, 11-6) to enter the medal. However, she could not continue her winning run against Moumita Dutta of RSPB and went down 1-4 (9-11, 10-12, 10-12, 11-9, 10-12) to contend with the third place.
