Surat, September 24: Gujarat registered their best-ever performance in table tennis in the history of the National Games, with local hero Harmeet Desai and the mixed doubles combination of Manush Shah and Krittwika Sinha Roy rounding up the competition with two more gold medals.
The hosts ended with a total of six medals, including three gold and three bronze to finish second in the overall championship. The men’s team, including Harmeet, Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah, had won the gold medal on Day 2 of the competition.
Harmeet and Manush finished with two gold medals each to the delight of the local crowds.
Both the men’s singles and mixed doubles finals were one-sided affairs as Harmeet and the combination of Manush and Krittwika registered straight-set victories over their respective opponents.
Harmeet, who had won the silver medal in Kerala seven years ago, wasn’t going to let go of another chance of standing at the top of the podium and began the match with an aggressive mindset. He kept Haryana’s Soumyajit Ghosh on the defensive by finding angles from both forehand and backhand shots to win 11-8, 11-4, 11-7, 11-8.
In the mixed doubles final, Manush and Krittwika thrashed Telangana’s Sreeja and FR Snehit 11-8, 11-5, 11-6.
“It is a very special occasion to win the gold medal in front of the home crowd,” said Harmeet, who had upset top seed G Sathiyan in the semifinals.
Sutirtha clinched the women’s singles and women’s doubles titles with relative ease to return with three gold. She first teamed up with Ayhika Mukherjee to defeat Karnataka’s Yashaswini Ghorpade and Kushi V in straight sets in the women’s doubles final.
Later, she quelled the challenge of national champion Sreeja Akula of Telangana 4-1 to become the most successful paddler of the competition.
West Bengal emerged as the overall champions, winning four gold, one silver and three bronze.
MEDALS WON BY GUJARAT
Gold: Men’s team, Harmeet Desai (Men’s Singles), Manush Shah/Krittwika Sinha Roy (Mixed Doubles)
Bronze: Manush Shah (men’s singles), Desai/Manav Thakkar and Shah/Ishaan Hingorani (men’s doubles)
Results (all finals)
Men’s singles: Harmeet Desai (Guj) bt Soumyajit Ghosh (Har) 11-8, 11-4, 11-7, 11-8
Women’s singles: Sutirtha Mukherjee (WB) bt Sreeja Akula (Tel) 11-8, 11-7, 11-8, 12-14, 11-9
Men’s doubles: Jeet Chandra/Ronit Bhanja (WB) bt Arjun Ghosh/Anirban Ghosh (WB) 11-4, 11-3, 11-3
Women’s doubles: Sutirtha Mukherjee/Ayhika Mukherjee (WB) bt Yashaswini Ghorpade/Kushi V 11-8, 11-5, 13-11
Mixed doubles: Manush Shah/Krittwika Sinha Roy (Guj) bt FR Snehit/Sreeja Akula (Tel) 11-8, 11-5, 11-6
