Siddhi Kolekar, a lanky and talented 14-year-old from Dahisar’s Poona Prajna School, was adjudged the ‘Best player’ of the PPEC Inter-school table tennis tournament, which got over at Bangalore on the last Sunday of 2014. She helped her school bag silver medal, and in the process remained unbeaten during the entire tournament. Incidentally, the Dahisar school’s boys team, too, emulated their feat, by remaining second best in their section.
Siddhi Kolekar
In the five-team contest, the Dahisar outfit’ led by Siddhi, dropped a tie to Sangameshwarpet before winning the opening encounter 3-1 with Siddhi winning both her singles, while Mitali and Khooshi Pawar lost their matches. In the quarterfinals, however, the Mumbai girls thrashed Aldur School 3-0 and in the semifinals, pumped up Siddhi again took both her singles, while Mithali completed the tally, they got the better of Belur 3-1.
However, the final proved to be too much for them. Siddhi, though, repeated her earlier feats by taking both the singles, but her teammates failed to provide her adequate support and the Mumbai girls went down 2-3 and had to settle for silver medal. However, Siddhi had the consolation of being adjudged the ‘best player of the tournament’ .Their boys, too, lost in the finals and ended second best.
Results of the final (Girls): Bhadravati school (Bangalore) bt Prooja Prajna (Dahisar) 3-2: Moulya S lost to Siddhi Kolekar 5-11, 8-11, 7-11;11-7; Adiga bt Mitali Sakpal 11-8, 11-7, 11-6; Pooja S bt Khooshi Pawar 11-5; 11-6, 11-4; lost to Siddhi Kolekar 11-7, 8-11, 11-9, 11-7; Moulya bt Mitali Sakpal 11-5, 11-7, 11-6.