ITANAGAR: First seed Payas Jain made a calk-walk over his opponents Tandin Tshering from Bhutan and Baniya Bishwo from Nepal as the Indian won 3-0 against both to take the top spot in Group 1.
With this the Arunachal player entered into the main draw of the U-19 boys’ singles in the South Asian Youth Table Tennis at the Dorjee Khandu Indoor Stadium on Tuesday.
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Following his footsteps and into the second stage of the singles event was Ankur Bhattacharjee, the second Indian in the fray.
He, too, registered a 3-0 win over Sujau Mohamed Thabin of Maldvies and Gesandu Peiris of Sri Lanka in Group 2, the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) informed.
From Group 3, Ridoy Mohutasin Ahmed from Bangladesh had cosy outings against Utam Kafley of Bhutan and Batagoda Gamage of Sri Lanka, beating his rivals 3-0 and 3-1, respectively. Bawam Ramhim Lian from Bangladesh topped Group 4, beating Khalid Akhyar Ahmed of Maldives 3-2 and following it up with a 3-0 victory over Sujan Gadal of Nepal.
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Nepal’s Baniya Bishwo, Gasandu Peiris of Sri Lanka, Batagoda Gamage of Sri Lanka and Khalid Akhyar Ahmed of the Maldives from the four groups grabbed the second slots to qualify for the knockout stage.
In the U-19 girls’ category, India’s Yashashwini Ghorpade and Suhana Saini topped Groups 1 and 2, while Fathimath Dheema Ali from Maldives led Group 3 to enter the second-stage draw.
In the U-15 boys’ singles, Pradivadhi Bhayankan and Priyanuj Bhattacharya of India led Groups 1 and 2, while Habib Abul Hashem of Bangladesh topped Group 3.
On Monday, the Indian girls displayed their regional supremacy with a clean slate to lead the single-group chart and win gold in the U-19 team.
In their last round-robin match, India beat Sri Lanka 3-0 to earn the gold medal and book their tickets to Doha for the Asian Youth Championships in July, the TTFI said.
Similarly, the Indian domination continued in the U-15 boys’ category as they led the single-group team events to take the gold, beating their opponents with an identical margin of 3-0 in the four matches they had to play.
The team consisted of PB Abhinand, Priyanuj Bhattacharya and Punit Biswas. The Sri Lankans settled for silver, while Bangladeshis and Maldivians received the bronze medals.
In the U-15 girls’ category too, the Indians, led by Jennifer Varghese, Sayanika Maji and Avisha Karmakar, held sway over their neighbouring rivals, winning all their matches against their opponents 3-0. Following them on the medal podium were silver medallists Nepal and bronze winners Maldives and Sri Lanka.