The most enthusiastice veteran Table Tennis players from Maharashtra have returned from Jaipur with maximum medals in both team as well as individual events in the 25th Veterans National Table Tennis Championships which concluded at the SMS Indoor Stadium on sunday. Except for men 40+, women40+ Men & women 70+ & 80+ Maharashtra colour was flying high in other events.
Rohit and Shilpa pose with their mixed doubles trophies
Maharashtra ensured their Silver medal, when three of their players Sunil Babras, Naveen Salian and Ajay Kothavale entered semi finals of Men’s 50+ Singles. While Babras defeated Naveen in the first semi finals, Ajay played brilliantly against Delhi’s Harsh Chopra before going down 3-2 in the decider.
Sunil Babras conveying good news to his wife.
However, former international Sunil Babras scored a straight 3-0 victory in the finals, over Harsh Chopra to bag the title. Though both Ajay and Naveen lost in semis, they have shown tremendous progress at the national level, after establishing their position in Maharashtra teams.
Prakash kelkar all smiles
In the Men’s 60+ Singles, evergreen Prakish kelkar and Dinkar Shelarka both from Maharashtra had already ensured another Gold for Maharashtra. Both fought well against each other and the battle went to four games with Prakash scoring over his team mate, who suffered an ankle injury in the fourth game.
Yogesh Desai and Mangal Saraf two triple crown winners sharing their experience.
This was followed by Maharashtra’s winning run for medals, with two more players from Maharashtra namely former international Suhas Kulkarni and Yogesh Desai battling against each other in the finals of Men’s 65+ finals. Displaying his better ball control, Yogesh Desai bagged the Gold, which was his 4th Veterans’ Singles title.The last one was in the year 2014 at Dharamshala.
Kulkarnis celebrating their team trophies
Yogesh also bagged Gold medal in men’s 65+ doubles with Deepak Dudhane, when the pair beat another Maharashtra pair of Suhas Kulkarni and Ulhas Shirke in the finals. Yogesh had earlier won a Gold medal in teams for Maharashtra, with his team members Suhas Kulkarni, Ulhas Shirke, Ulhas kelshikar and Bapu katdhare. Overwhelmed by this victory, the former Gujarat player stated that it was the best gift for himself just two days before his birthday, which he would celebrate with his family, after returning to Mumbai.
D.Suren( Ext left) from T.N.,with Dinkar Shelarka ( Centre) and Deepak Dudhane & M.S.Subramanium(T.N.).
In the men’s 75+ Singles Maharashtra’s Subodh Deshpande bagged another Gold for his state beating AK Rednam from AP. In the Women’s section, Srekha Pusalkar managed to bag Silver for Maharashtra in 50+ , but Mangal Saraf and Manisha Bodas bagged Gold medals each in Women’s 60+ and 65+ respectively.
Maharashtra men and women also proved their supremacy in Doubles, with Mangal Saraf partnering with Manisha Bodas winning Gold in Women in 60+ scoring over another Maharashtra pair and top seed Sunanda Rao and Rajeshwari Mehtre in the finals. This was followed by Mangal Saraf Partnering with Dinkar Shelarka winning her third Gold .
80+ medal winners B.U. Krishnamurthy ( (R) (KNT) & AN Bhargava(L) (UP)
Kulkarni husband and wife Jayant and Neeta also made their Maharashtra state proud bagging two more Gold medals, when Jayant partnering with Percy Mehta won the 60+ singles final and Neeta partnering with Aatmaram Gangarde scored a fluent win over MP pair of Sanjay Mehta-Ruby Kumar. Earlier, on the final day, Neeta Kulkarni, who is Asst. Commissioner of Customs & Excise was felicitated by the host.
Crossing the borders to celebrate the event
One more Gold medal was won by Maharashtra in the Mixed doubles individual event, when Rohit Choudhary-Shilpa Joshi beat Vivek Bhargava-Moonmoon Mukherjee also from Maharashtra. With this Gold , Maharashtra had taken their Gold medal tally to a dozen of medals, but Maharashtra players also bagged plenty of Silver and Bronze medals, dominating the individual singles and doubles events. In all, through our sources, Maharashtra bagged about 45 Medals out of which 15 in Singles, 13 in Doubles, 7 in Mixed Doubles and 10 in team Championship events.
PJ Hindu Gymkhana Mumbai members together with their medals.
The men’s 40+ final match invited all the attention , as it displayed fine stroke play between two best players Rahul Chopra ( Delhi) and Vivek Mahajan ( Punjab). The match was stretched to well contested five games with Rahul bagging the Gold. Many seeded and renowned players were knocked out in this tournament. In the initial rounds Maharashtra’s Kiran Salian, Jaganath Mohite & Deepak Dudhane & RBI’s Mukul Boro suffered defeats.
Officials in conversation at the venue on final day
Top Seed Deepak Dudhane was knocked out by Tamilnadu’s D.Suren in pre quarter finals , who later bagged a Bronze medal in Men’s 65+ group. However, in the team events Maharashtra players put up a good show, winning maximum medals, in different age groups of men and women.
The chief guest Col. Rajvardhan Rathore poses with few prize winners
Overall, it was a good competition, with good support coming from Tournament Referees and Umpires, who worked tirelessly from early morning till late evening on all six days. But, the in between announcements made to welcome guests during the matches and pigeons flying atop the 21 tables in the centrally air conditioned hall spoiled the show. Ace Sports Photographer Prasad Naik made all the participants happy with fantastic memorable clicks through his lenses..
Col. Rajwardhan Rathore , former Olympian & Cabinet Minister of Sports was the chief guest on the final day and gave away few prizes, due to his busy schedule, but he did gave an inspiring speech to boost the morale of the veteran players.
Results (Finals):
Men 40+ Singles: Rahul Chopra (DEL) bt Vikas Mahajan (PUN) 10-12, 11-7, 7-11, 18-16, 11-6
Men 50+ Singles: Sunil Babras (DB) bt Harsh Chopra (DEL) 11-6, 11-3, 11-4.
Men 60+ Singles: Prakash Kelkar (MHR) bt D Shelarkar (MHR) 13-15, 11-9, 16-14, 13-11.
Men 65+ Singles: Yogesh Desai (MHR) bt Suhas Kulkarni (MHR) 12-10, 7-11, 10-12, 11-4, 11-7.
Men 70+ Singles: Nazmi Khinkhabwala (GUJ) bt Ramesh P. Malvia (MP) 11-6, 13-11, 11-8.
Men 75+ Singles: Subodh Deshpande (MHR) bt AK Rednam (AP) 6-11, 11-6, 11-5, 6-11, 11-7.
Men 80+ Singles: B.U. Krishnamurthy (KNT) bt AN Bhargava (UP) 11-7, 11-9, 9-11, 6-11, 11-9.
Men 40+ Doubles: Vikas Mahajan-Rama Kanak (PUN) bt Rohit Choudhary-Vivek Bhargava (MHR) 9-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-9.
Men 50+ Doubles: Ajay Jha-Harsh Chopra (DEL) bt Surendranath-Soram Joyachandra IA&AD 11-6, 11-4, 11-6.
Men 60+ Doubles: Jayant Kulkarni-Percy Mehta (MHR) bt S. Sreedhar-M.S. Subramanyam (TN) 12-10, 5-11, 11-9, 12-14, 12-10.
Men 65+ Doubles: Yogesh Desai-Deepak Dudhane (MHR) bt Ulhas Shirke-Suhas Kulkarni (MHR) 11-8, 11-8, 8-11, 11-9.
Men 70+ Doubles: Indresh Pathak-R.C. Moriya (MP) bt Srinivas Chalawadi-S.P.Jagannath (TELG) 11-8, 11-9, 11-7.
Women 40+ Singles: Prasunna Joshi (GUJ) bt Rajani Gupta (PUN) 11-7, 9-11, 11-9, 12-14, 13-11.
Women 50+ Singles: Mantu Murmu (IVC) bt Suhasini Bakre (MHR) w/o 3-0.
Women 50+ Doubles: Mantu Murmu-Mondira Sur (IVC) bt Bhavana Harne-Nagrathna (KNT) 11-6, 13-15, 12-14, 11-8, 11-5.
Mixed 40+ Doubles: Rohit Choudhary-Shilpa Joshi (MHR) bt Vivek Bhargava-Moonmoon Mukherjee (MHR) 11-4, 11-8, 7-11, 11-6.
Mixed 50+ Doubles: Atmaram Gangarde-Neeta Kulkarni (MHR) bt Sanjay Mehta-Ruby Kumar (MP) 11-9, 11-8, 11-7.
Women’s 60+ Singles: Mangal Saraf ( Mah) beat Jyotsnaben Joshi ( Guj) 3-1
Women’s Doubles 60+ : Mangal Saraf & Manisha Bodas beat Rajeshwari Mehtre and Sunanda Rao.
Mixed 60+ Doubles: Dinkar Shelarkar-Mangala Saraf (MHR) w/0 Percy Mehta-Mythili Sodhi (MHR).
Women’s 65+ Singles : Manisha Bodas ( Mah) beat Ritu Verma ( Har) 3-1
Women’s Doubles 65+ : Nirmala Abhyankar and Adi Laxmi Krishnan( Telangana) beat Kamlesh Jain and Geeta Rani (Rajasthan) 3-0.
Mixed 65+ Doubles: Adi Laxmi Krishnan-Ravinder Reddy (TELG) bt Nirmala Abhyankar-Venkat Ranga Rao ( Tel) 11-9, 11-8, 11-9.
(Results incomplete)