Western Railway’s ex-India junior international Moonmoon Mukherjee , returned with glory, winning a gold and two bronze medals in the Bodrum International Veterans Table Tennis Open Tournament which got over on Sunday at Bodrum, Turkey. For a player, who has been in the game for over 16 years, both as a junior and senior player at the national and international level as well as coach, it was quite a creditable achievement.
Moonmoon Mukherjee
Moonmoon was the lone player from India, where players from more than 20 countries took part. To show her mettle she played in the women (plus 39) open singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles and thanks to her superb allround game, she won a medal in each of the formats. She defeated players from Russia, Belgium, Turkey, Bulgaria and Sweden to make the singles semifinals. However, she lost to the home favourite Fulya Duker to settle for bronze.
Moonmoon Mukherjee and her doubles partner from Turkey, Fulya Duker
But the icing on the cake was her gold in the women’s doubles in which she paired with singles rival Turkey’s Fulya Duker to score over the Russian pair in a tough contest. Later, in her mixed doubles event, she teamed up with M. Kochar from Iran and after some hiccups the pair got the better of another Turkish pair in the quarters, but fell in the semifinals for another bronze medal. Her winning a medal in all formats was very well acclaimed and appreciated by the hosts. At present apart from coaching and training the school children at her centre at Powai, she is also a coach of the Western Railway team, Her trip was sponsored by DHFL.