Mumbai players bag 5 titles at State Ranking Veterans’ Tourney
The 1st State Ranking Veterans’ Table Tennis Tournament of 2017, concluded on Sunday evening at PYC Gymkhana, Pune. As expected, players from Mumbai City and Suburban district bagged five titles in different age groups. The tournament had received overwhelming response, with good competition witnessed during the weekend.
Both Prakash kelkar and Mangal Saraf from Mumbai proved their supremacy in 60+ age group of Men and Women, bagging their respective Singles titles. Though Mangal Saraf had easy victory over her opponent Rajeshwari Mehtre , Prakash had to fight hard to snatch the victory from his Mumbai friend K.K.Rai in a five well contested game games. Earlier Prakash had beaten Dinkar Shelarka in semi finals. K.K.Rai, who has entered the 60+ group this year, was conferred with the Lifetime Achievement award by the hosts, for his non stop dedication to this game for the past 40 years. K.K. who has won the National Veterans’ title 7 times in the past, also played in veterans’ tournaments at the international level.
Dr. Anagha Kale from Mumbai retained her last year’s form to lift the Women’s Singles title in 50+ age group, recording a straight games victory over M. Pandit. In the Men’s 64+ group, Ulhas Shirke won his maiden Veterans’ Singles title with a remarkable victory ( 3-2) over current National Champion and Top seed Deepak Dudhane, to bring the fourth trophy for Mumbai. Ulhas had earlier knocked out seeded Satish Kulkarni and Pinakin Sampat in quarter and Semi finals respectively. Evergreen Zarir Khandadia continued his winning run this year too, bringing 5th title for Mumbai. He defeated birthday boy Dr. Mulye from Pune in straight games.
The other results are as follows:
Men’s 40+ Manish Rawat bt Sameer Bhate 3-1
Women’s 40+ Sushma( Leena) Mogre bt Trupti Machve 3-0
Men’s 50+ Sunil Babras bt Ajay Kothavle 3-1
Men’s 69+ Subodh Deshpande bt Mr. Shirsat