Prabodhankar Thackeray Krida Sankul(PTKS), Vile Parle and The Suburban Table Tennis Association( TSTTA) jointly hosted a grand felicitation function in honour of the medalists from Maharashtra at the recently concluded 20th World Veterans’ Table Tennis Championship ( WVC 2023) held in Muscat, Oman. It may be recalled that out of the 24 medals won by India, 15 medals were won by players from Maharashtra, making the entire country proud of their performance at this prestigious event conducted by International Table Tennis Federation ( ITTF) and held every two years at different places in the world.
This big competition for Masters of TT from the age groups 40+ to 85+ in Men and Women had attracted 1700 participants from 69 countries in the world including USA, Japan, China, Germany, Finland, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Malaysia, Italy, Iran , Korea, CZE, Norway besides India and others. And we are proud to announce that India took second position in the final medals tally after Germany, followed by other big countries like Denmark, USA, Japan and China. Most of the Gold medals won by India, came from 60+ and above age groups.
From Maharashtra Yogesh Desai bagged a Gold medal in Men’s 70+ Singles, while Ulhas Shirke & Pinakin Sampat bagged a Gold in Men’s 70+ Doubles and Mangal Saraf bagging the 3rd Gold medal in the Women’s doubles 65+ section partering Rita Jain from M.P. The 3 Silver medals won by Maharashtra came from Suhasini Bakre in the Women’s Singles 60+ section, while Shilpa Joshi won a Silver medal in Women’s Singles 50+ section. The third Silver medal came from Pinakin Sampat ( his second medal) partnering Etsuko Iseki from Japan.
The Bronze medal winners from Maharashtra were , Shruti Joshi partering Anjana Rao ( Women’s Doubles 40+ section), Anil Rasam & Rajesh Mudam ( Men’s Doubles 60+ section, Neeta Kulkarni & Suhasini Bakre ( Women’s Doubles 60+ section, Manish Rawat & Shilpa Joshi ( Mixed Doubles 50+ section), Dr. Anagha Joshi & Shilpa Joshi ( Women’s 50+ doubles), Moon Moon Mukherjee ( Women’s Singles 45+ section), Sadiya Vanjara partnering Ayeswarya Pai Bhat ( Women’s Doubles 45+ section) & Mangal Saraf( Women’s Singles 65+ section) .
All the above players who won medals in the main draw, were also felicitated along with other 14 players from Maharashtra those who couldn’t make it to the main draw, put up a very good show in the Consolation draw and were winners and runners up in the Singles/ Doubles of their respective age groups.The names of these players are, Sarika Varade( Winner W40+), Samir Bhate( Winner M50+), Samir Bhate & Ravindra Joshi ( Winners MD 50+), P.G.Kelkar & Percy Mehta ( Winners MD 65+), Pinakin Sampat ( Winner MS 70+) , Shravani Dhapre ( R- Up WS 50+), Shivpriya Naik & Krupa Shah ( R-Up WD 40+), Rajnish Khatavkar & Amit Modi ( R-up MD 45+), Swati Agharkar & Sunita Dhating ( R-up WD 55+).
There were few other players from Maharashtra, those who made it to the main draw, but went down fighting. Their efforts were also appreciated. Mr. Arwind Prabhoo CEO of PTKS, who was the man behind hosting this grand function along with TSTTA Prsident Yogesh Desai, Vice President Dhananjay Sathe, Hon. Secretary Samir Bhate, were present on this occasion to welcome the guests of honour Mr. S. Ramaswamy, former India TT Player , Mr. Praveen Kutty Head Retail Banking, DCB Bank, Mr. Narendra Chhajed from Nasik , Mr. Suhas Dandekar Coordinator of Maharashtra Veterans Committee and others. Many TT players were present to greet the medal winners. Mr. A.M.Warunkar Senior TT player was also felicitated for his contribution to this game.
The felicitation function was anchored by Mr. Sreedhar from DCB Bank, who had arranged for T shirts for all players participating in the World Cup. He made announcement that for the first time so many medals were won by players from Maharashtra and asked the participants present there, whether anyone had won a medal earlier. And the prompt response came from present Gold medal and Bronze medal winner Mangal Saraf. She brought to the notice of all those present that so far she has won 5 medals after playing in the main draw, at the World Veterans TT Championship. Mangal had won her first medal which was a silver, at the Manchester World Veterans ‘ TT in 40+ section, when she partnered former international TT Player Nandini Kulkarni to win a Silver. She also won a Silver medal in the team event at the same championship , which was introduced for the first and last time that year on an experimental basis. While speaking to Magzmumbai.com, Mangal confirmed this and added another news of her winning silver in 2018. She even showed her photos with Rita Jain on the dais along with press report of magzmumbai, when she had won a Silver medal in Womern’s doubles at the Las Vegas Women’s Doubles 60+ section.
Most of the medal winners were happy with this fine gesture shown by PTKS and TSTTA , but expressed their disappointment for poor response from Media on their big achievement. They feel that the Sports Ministry of Maharashtra and Government of India should announce rewards for them, as they had won medals for India. Hope, the concerned authorities will look into this matter.