Mumbai Players win five titles at PYC Gymkhana Veterans’ State Ranking TT

Mumbai players have bagged five individual titles in their respective age groups and one team title in Men’s 60+ team event at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana’s Dr. Pramod Mulay Memorial  State Ranking Veterans’ Table Tennis tournament, which concluded in Pune yesterday. The names of the  title winners in different age groups are, Anil Rasam ( Men  60+), Dr. Anagha Joshi ( Women  50+), Suhas Kulkarni ( Men 65+), Satish Kulkarni ( Men 70+), and Maria D’sa ( Women 65+) .

 

Except for the final played  between Anil Rasam  and Prakash Kelkar in Men’s 60+ group, all other finals won by other Mumbai players turned out to be one sided. Anil Rasam really had a tough time  beating favourite Prakash Kelkar . The match was stretched to five games, with both the players not leaving any opportunity for the third ball attack. But, the more consistent Anil took charge of the crucial decider pushing back his stylish opponent at the receiving end.

 

Dr. Anagha Joshi after winning the previous three titles this year, won her fourth crown in the Women’s 50+ singles when she defeated another  Mumbai player Sneha Padhye. While former international Suhas Kulkarni  demonstrated his superiority in Men’s 65+ while playing opposite Percy Mehta also from Mumbai, his elder brother Satish Kulkarni confirmed one more title in the family, after knocking down Pune’s Dilip Kurtadkar in Men’s 69+ finals, with the held of his strong backhand strokes.

 

Maria D’sa who is also a recognised veteran badminton player, has proved that she is also too good , when it comes to playing competitive table tennis.  Maria won her Women’s 65+ title, after she emerged unbeaten winner in the round robin matches played in her group. Her husband former international Badminton player  Leroy D’sa was also present to witness his wife’s success in this tournament. Leroy was also felicitated on this occasion. Ram Kadam who played the finals of Men’s  40+ group,  went down fighting to Solapur’s Dr. Nitin Toshniwal. Much was expected from top seeded Mumbai player Ujwala Marathe. But she could not match with the consistency of  Pune’s Suhasini Bakre ( Seed no.3) in the Women’s 60+ singles final. Other Mumbai players who reached the semi final stage in their respective groups were Jayant Kulkarni, Ulhas Shirke, Jitu Mawani, Shravani Dhapre, Sivapriya Naik, Vishali Malwankar and Zarir Khandadia.

 

In the 40+ team championship event T LAC Nasik team scored a hat trick of wins, after beating Mumbai team  of Prbodhankar Thackeray Kreeda Sankul, Vile Parle Mumbai team in the finals. However,  another Mumbai team of PJ Hindu Gymkhana won the 60+ Men’s team event beating Forza TT tem also from Mumbai in other finals.  Mr. Vivek Alwani from Jalgaon received the Lifetime achievement award, while kedar Moghe from Pune was adjudged the best player in this tournament .

It was a well organised tournament with Mr. Lonare as chief referee with th assistance fro  Mr. Khedkar managing the match schedule very efficiently and Avinash Joshi and his team making a great effort to attain a grand success. Keeping in mind the inspiration they received from late Dr. Pramod Mulay, they felicitated all the 75+ players on the final day. Only shortcoming from the organisers was their decision of not presenting the medals to the winners, runners up and semi finalists.

All the results in detail: ( Courtesy : Satish Pingale)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In   Women’s 65 +  Maria D’sa ( Mumbai) was the unbeaten winner of the matches held on Round Robbin basis in this group.