After a gap of two years, the Masters of Table Tennis from all over India numbering around 1200 from 28 states had assembled for the 28th National Masters Table Tennis Championship at the newly constructed Sher E Kashmir Indoor Stadium in picturesque Srinagar last week. They participated in 38 events for men ( 40 + to 80 + age groups) and women( 40+ to 65+ age groups).
This championship was held under the auspices of Table Tennis Federation of India, through the Committee of Administrators and with the blessings of the Indian Veterans Table Tennis Committee and supported by the J and K Sports Council. An equally enthusiastic organising committee, under the chairmanship of Sarmad Hafeez and vice-chairperson Mrs Nuzhat Gul, organised this tournament with the help of Mr Ajay Sharma, a member of the Indian Veterans Committee and Organising Secretary of the event.
L- G of Jammu and Kashmir Mr. Manoj Sharma inaugurated this championship. He explained how the game of Table Tennis was being promoted in Jammu and Kashmir at the school and college level especially in the districts.
The six day long tournament was dominated by Maharashtra players, who made their presence felt in team as well as individual singles and doubles events, winning maximum medals. Maharashtra teams won 5 out of 11 Gold medals in the team events winning the Women’s 50+, Men’s 60+, Men’s 65+, Womens 60& 65+ and Men’s 70+ titles. In the 25 individual events Maharashtra players bagged 11 Gold medals in the Men’s Singles 50+, 65+, 70+, Women’s Singles 65+, Men’s Doubles 50+, 60+ & 70+ , Women’s Doubles 60+, 65+ and Mixed Doubles 50+ and 65+ sections.
Best performance came from Mangal Saraf from Women’s 65+ section, who won Four Gold medals including one for her team. She was the only participant from India to win Four Gold medals. She was followed by 51 year old Manish Rawat an Assistant Director of Income Tax Department from Maharashtra, who bagged three Gold and one silver. 70 year old Yogesh Desai also from Maharashtra bagged three Gold medals and a Bronze.
The 70+ Men’s Singles final played between Satish Kulkarni and Pinakin Sampat received good applause for for their finest game display. After the match both the players received standing ovation from the crowd. And, how can we forget Prasad Naik the passionate photographer from Maharashtra, who besides clicking memorable moments of players also displayed his best skills in this game by winning Gold in Men’s 50+ doubles along with Men’s 50+ Champion Manish Rawat. On the final day, Ms. Geeta Mittal , Chairperson of the Committee of Administrators of TTFI was the chief guest and gave away the prizes of individual events.
The overall performance of Maharashtra players was noteworthy, asthey wonmedals inmajority of the events, except Men’s and Women’s 40+ Women’s Doubles 40+ and Men’s 75+. No wonder there was maximum participation from Maharashtra players. Thanks to Suhas Dandekar Head of Maharashtra Veterans’ Committee, who was assisted by Rajendra Bhoboo and Shekhar Varadkar in coordinating with this big group during this tournament.
Thanks are also due to the team of Referees headed by N. Ganeshan and the big team of young umpires including those from J & K, who did their job well to manage the long schedules. J & K Police did a commendable job in providing the best security at the stadium and also to arrange transport for the participants to and fro Stadium and hotels. The auto rickshaw and taxi drivers were equally courteous for providing proper transportation, whenever required. Last but not the least, the hard work by young Kashmiri youth needs appreciation, for tirelessly making the food arrangments throughout the day at the specially erected Shamiyana tent at the venue.
Results of all the Team Finals :
Men’s Team 40+: Final: IA&AD bt WB 3-0
Men’s Team 50+: Final: IA&AD bt Maharashtra 3-2.
Men’s Team 60+: Final: Maharashtra A bt Delhi A 3-2.
Men’s team 65+ : Maharashtra A beat Delhi 3-0.
Men’s Team 70+: Final: Maharashtra A bt Delhi 3-2.
Men’s Team 75+ & 80+: Final: Madhya Pradesh bt Gujarat 3-0.
Women’s Team 40+: Final: Gujarat A bt Bengal 3-1
Women’s Team 50+: Final: Maharashtra A bt Gujarat 3-2
Women’s Team 60 & 65+ Final : Maharashtra C beat Maharashtra A 3-0.
Results of all Individual Championships:
Men’s Singles 40+: Final: Abu Rizwan (IA&AD) bt Rishi Raj Tyagi (UP) 11-7, 11-9, 11-6.
Men’s Singles 50+: Final: Manish Rawat (Mah) bt Basab Chaudhri (IA&AD) 11-9, 9-11, 9-11, 11-4, 11-9.
Men’s Singles 60+: Final: Vinay Chopra (Del) bt Pankaj Sharma (Pun) 11-4, 11-6, 11-9.
Men’s Singles 65+: Final: Prakash Kelkar (Mah) bt Gopal Chakraborty (WB) 11-5, 11-2, 10-12, 11-6;
Men’s Singles 70+: Final: Satish B Kulkarni (Mah) bt Pinakin Sampapt (Mah) 10-12, 11-8, 11-8, 16-14.
Men’s Singles 75+: Final: Indresh Purohit (MP) bt Ramesh Prakash Malviya (MP) 3-1 (11-4, 9-11, 11-5, 11-8).
Men’s Singles 80+: Final: Gopalan Swaminathan (Kar) bt Kamalesh Gangopadhyay (WB A) 3-1 (11-5, 1-8, 7-11, 11-5).
Men’s Doubles 40+: Final: Abu Rizwan/Kasturi Chakravarthy (IA&AD) bt Amit Modi/Suhas Ashok Rrane (Mah) 4-11, 11-8, 11-13, 11-6, 11-5.
Men’s Doubles 50+: Final: Prasad Naik/Manish Rawat (Mah) bt Rishi Sharma/Laxmanrao Thakre (Guj) 11-5, 4-11, 11-5, 7-11, 10-12.
Men’s Doubles 60+: Final: Sunil Babras/Prakash Panjabi (Mah) bt Pankaj Sharma/Ajay Sharma (Pun) 11-6, 11-2, 11-9.
Men’s Doubles 65+: Final: Kishore Somani/Gopal Chakraborty (Ben) bt Percy Mehta/Prakash Kelkar (Mah) bt 11-8, 4-11, 11-3, 11-7.
Men’s Doubles 70+: Final: Yogesh Desai/Ulhas Shirke (Mah) bt Satish Kulkarni/Pinakin Sampat (Mah) 11-9, 11-5, 11-4.
Men’s Doubles 75+&80+: Final: Arun Singh Barhat/Mukund Dev Aggarwal (Raj) bt Dr B. Sainath Iyer/Prabhakar GY (Kar) 3-2 (7-11, 6-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-2).
Women’s Singles 40+: Final: Meenu Basak (Ben) bt Chandrani Dey (Ben) 11-8, 11-6, 11-8.
Women’s Singles 50+: Final: Sonal Joshi (Guj) bt Rajni Gupta (Pun) 11-5, 9-11, 11-8, 11-7.
Women’s Singles 60+: Final: Mantu Murmu (WB A) bt Indu Sharma (Del) 3-0 (11-4, 11-6, 12-10).
Women’s Singles 65+: Final: Mangal Saraf (Mah) bt Ranjana S. Patki (Mah) 3-1 (6-11, 11-4, 11-5, 11-4).
Women’s Doubles 40+: Final: Prasunna Parekh/Shital Shah (Guj) bt Chandrani Dey/Mousumi Banerjee (Ben) 11-8, 6-11, 6-11, 11-6, 11-9.
Women’s Doubles 50+: Final: Sonal Joshi/Divya Pandya (Guj) bt Shilpa Joshi/Sushma V. Mogare (Mah) 11-6, 11-9, 11-2.
Women’s Doubles 60+: Final: Swati Suhas Agharkar/Nutan Dhikale (Mah) bt Indu Sharma/Sunita Mudgil (Del) 14-12, 9-11, 12-10, 11-9.
Women’s Doubles 65+: Final: Mangal Saraf/Ranjana S Patki (Mah) bt Jyoti Kulkarni/Maria Ingrid D’Sa (Mah) 10-12, 11-2, 11-2.
Mixed Doubles 40+: Final: Gaurav Doshi/Prasunna Parekh (Guj) bt Anjana Rao/C.R.Satyajit (Kar) 13-11, 4-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-9.
Mixed Doubles 50+: Final: Manish Rawat/Shilpa Joshi (Mah) bt Sanjay Mehta/Neeta Vaishnav (MP) 11-7, 12-10, 11-3.
Mixed Doubles 60+: Final: Jaswinder Singh Patheja/Mantu Murmur (WB) bt Ravinder Kumar Sharma/Indu Sharma (Del) 3-2 (7-11, 9-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-8).
Mixed Doubles 65+ : Yogesh Desai and Mangal Saraf ( Mah) beatSuhas Dandekar & Rajeshwari Mehtre ( Mah) 3-0