India’s young paddlers crowned their terrific run in the Slovenia Junior and Cadet Open by finishing with three gold, three silver and two bronze medals late on Sunday night at Otocec.
Vidyalankar Institute of Technology (green bib) prevailed over Ramnirajan Anandilal Podar College of Commerce and Economics in a penalty shootout 3-1 in a RFYS College Boys qualifier at St Xavier’s ground, Parel on Monday.
Seventeen-year-old Manav Thakkar led the charge on the last day of the tournament, winning the Junior Boys’ Singles and Junior Boys’ Doubles’ title in the company of Manush Shah to make it a grand gold double for himself.
Earlier on Saturday, when India began the medal hunt with 1 gold and 2 silver, he had featured in India A’s upset defeat to India B as well in the Junior Boys’ Team event.
Jeho H (Cadet Boys’ singles) with a silver medal and Selena Selvakumar (Junior Girls’ singles) and the pair of Snehit S & Anukram Jain (Junior Boys’ doubles) with a bronze each were the other heroes for India on Sunday.
Rajkot’s Manav Thakkar overcame Japan’s Takeru Kashiwa in the final of the Junior Boy’s singles 4-0 to clinch perhaps the most coveted title. He won rather comfortably 11-6, 11-3, 11-5, 11-6.
Jeho Himnakulhpuingheta looked like a good bet for another gold medal but he couldn’t unravel Owen Cathcart in the finals and had to be content with the silver.
Selena Selvakumar too was just a game away from making it to the finals in the Junior Girls’ Singles. After losing the first game 14-16 to Chin Yau Wong, she won the next three 11-3, 11-9, 11-8 to take the upper hand. But she lost the next three (5-11, 9-11, 4-11) to miss her tryst with a brighter coloured medal.
Snehit S and Anukram Jain, on the other hand, lost to the Indian pair of Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah in the semis to have to be content with the bronze.
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Aakash in seventh heaven
On a day when it rained goals, Aakash Phadtare turned in a seven-star display for St Xavier’s High School and Junior College as they demolished ICL High School (English Medium) 28-0 in a junior boys qualifying match of the Reliance Foundation Youth Sports football tournament played here on Monday.
The Mumbai leg of the national-level tournament sprung to life as over 130 goals were scored in 17 matches held across five venues. St Xavier’s led the goal charge with Aakash booting seven goals while Atharva Golapkar, Sahil Bapardekar, Shubham Patil, Dhruv Nene were the other top scorers with three goals each.
While most the big scoring games were in the junior and senior boys’ categories, the college boys matches in contrast were keenly contested affairs. Vidyalankar Institute of Technolgy and Bharatiya Vidyapeeth College of Engineering forged ahead via tie-breaker as both their matches failed to produce any goals in regulation time.
RESULTS (qualifiers)
Junior boys: CES Michael High School bt Don Bosco High School & Junior College, Vikhroli 2-0; Father Agnel Multipurpose School & Junior College bt Modern School, Vashi 13-0; Bhaktivedanta Swami Mission High School bt Arya Vidya Mandir, Bandra (W) 3-2; Shree Narayan Guru High School bt New Model English High School 7-0; ICL High School (English Medium) lost to St Xavier’s High School & Junior College 0-28; Hashu Advani Memorial School bt KVK Ghatkopar Sarvajanik School and Junior College 3-0; Parle Tilak Vidyalaya English Medium School bt St Mary’s High School, Anand Nagar 8-0; Pawar Public School, Bhandup (W) bt Smt KC Gandhi English School 4-0; Fatima High School, Ghatkopar bt Karthika High School and Junior College 9-1; Sheth Virchand Dhanji Devshi Secondary English Medium School bt General Education Society 9-0
Senior boys: Fatima High School, Ambernath bt Vidya Prasarak Manda 16-0; Guardian School lost to Holy Angels School & Junior College 0-10; Dnyan Puspa Vidya Niketan bt Ramsheth Thakur High Secondary Vidyalankar 13-1; BES Junior College, Bhandup bt Dnyan Sarita School & Junior College 6-0.
College Boys: Vidyalankar Institute of Technolgy bt Ramniranjan Anandilal Podar College of Commerce and Economics 3(0)-1(0); Bharatiya Vidyapeeth College of Engineering bt DY Patil 10(0)-8(0); SIES College of ASC, Sion bt Padma Bhushan Vasantdada Patil Pratishthan’s College of Engineering 3-0.