Maharashtra which had maximum representation of 200+ players at the Masters Table Tennis Nationals held in Indore between 12- 17 February 2019, displayed good form in each and every age group of men and women events. Their best performance in the team championship event was seen in the Men’s 40+, Men’s 50+, Men’s 65+, Women 60+ and Women 65+ events.
Maharashtra Men’s 60+ team with Winner’s trophy
Though Maharashtra team lost to team of Indian Audit (IA&AD) in the finals of Men’s 40+ event , it was Pankaj Rahane who gave a flying start to the team beating Kasturi Srivatsa Chakravarthy in a five game thriller. Their other two players Rohit Choudhari and Manish Rawat could not offer required support, though they fought well. However, their entry into finals helped Maharashtra win Silver medal in this event. Maharashtra 40+ women’s team comprising of Sushma Mogare, Sarika Varade,Shravani Dhapare & Shruti Kanade Joshi managed Bronze medal .
Maharashtra Women’s A and B teams who were finalists in 60+ age group.
Maharashtra 50+ Men also made it to the finals of team event, but lost narrowly to Delhi 2-3, though at one stage, it looked Maharashtra would win the title. All three players namely, Vivek Alwani, Dr.Nitin Toshniwal and Navin Salian played very well. However , it was their bad luck. Both Men 40+ and 50+ men’s team had to satisfy with Silver medal . There was one more Bronze medal won by Maharashtra in the Men’s 50+ event, when Maharashtra ‘C’ team comprising of Nitish Kumar Dhakappa, Sanjay V Mehta, Pramod Desai ,Aatmaram Gangarde & Neelkanth Potdar also managed to enter semi finals.
Maharashtra Men’s 65+’A’ team Gold medal Winners
The Maharashtra 50+ women’s A team comprising of Dr. Anagha Joshi, Neeta Kulkarni , Trupti Machave and Sneha Padhye also did well in the team event, bagging Bronze. But, their ‘B’ team’s performance was also noteworthy as they beat U.P, A.P. & M.P. in exciting matches . This team was represented by Pratibha Sawant of Indianoil, Rohini Ahilwal, Vaishali Malankar & Sandhya Khanolkar. But, the best performance in the Women’s team event came from Women60+ , when Maharashtra ‘B’ defeated Maharashtra ‘A’, with Ranjana Patki winning both her singles, including her victory over seasoned Suhasini Bakre, the captain of A team.
The Young Physiotherapist team at the venue
The first Good news was brought by Men’s 65+ teams of Maharashtra, when both their A as well as B teams entered semi finals, ensuring 2 medals for Maharashtra. Though the ‘B’ team represented by Deepak Dudhane, Ulhas Shirke, Sivanand Kundaje, Dilip Kurtadkar & Girish Sawant lost to Tamil Nadu 1-3, the ‘A’ team of Maharashtra comprising of Satish Kulkarni, Suhas Kulkarni, Yogesh Desai, Balkrishna Katdhare & Suhas Dandekar scored 3-1 win over Tamil Nadu to lift the first Gold medal for Maharashtra in the team event. The Women’s 65+ team of Maharashtra comprising of Preeti Pardeshi, Sheela Bhairamwar, Anjali kanetkar & Swati kadam bagged Silver in their 4 team league .
Maharashtra scored another Gold medal in team event when the star studded ‘A’ team of evergreen Prakash kelkar, Dinkar Selarka, Avinash Joshi , Percy Mehta & Jayant Kulkarni emerged unbeaten including their finals against host Madhya Pradesh led by Pramod Soni. However, Madhya Pradesh completed a hat-trick of titles as their men won the 70+ crown beating a spirited Chandigarh in the final . Santosh Kaushik was the star, winning both his singles to make amends for the loss of the second tie by teammate Indresh Purohit.
The overall tournament which was played at the huge Abhay Prashal Indoor Stadium, was well conducted , but the interruptions during the matches for prize distributions of concluded events from 2nd day onwards, was disturbing, as it took a longer time, with speeches of the guests and their felicitations. The organisers had however done one good thing and that was providing a team of young physiotherapists comprising of Dr. Pawan Carpenter MPT-Sports, Dr. Archana Verma MPT-Ortho, kamlesh Gujrati MPT-Sports, Dr. Archana Bhagoriya MPT-Ortho,Dr. Ratandeep Kaur Tuteja BPT, Dr. Mihir Vaidya BPT, Dr.Deepak Sen BPT & Dr. Ruchi Chinchalkar BPT, who worked 12-14 hours a day tirelessly, attending to the injured players.
Last but not the least, the live coverage of matches played on Table no’s 1 & 2 by young team Mobisportz headed by Akshay Gangarde was another highlight of this Master’s National TT championship. Thanks to M.P.State table tennis Association , Dr.Nitin Toshniwal( Competitor) and Yogesh Desai ( Competitor) who sponsored it.