They have crossed the age of 50, but their passion for the game of Table Tennis has not diminished yet. And those who saw them in action at the recently concluded 26th Masters’ National Table tennis Championship at Indore, would agree that all four of them played with the same enthusiasm and spirit which they displayed during their youthful days during 70s and 80s. Yes, we are talking about Suhas Kulkarni( Mharashtra) , Mangal Saraf( Maharashtra) , Prakash kelkar ( Maharashtra) and Sunil Babras ( Dena bank) who won Gold medals in their respective age groups. While Mangal( W-60+) , Prakash( M 60+) & Sunil( M 50+) defended their titles won last year, Suhas( 65+) a former international made a comeback winning the title, which he had last won in 2015 at Kochi. With this achievement they have made entire Maharashtra proud with their latest achievement.
Suhas Kulkarni
Mangal Saraf Proudly posed with her Triple crown, as besides winning the Women’s 60+ Singles against her rival from Maharashtra Suhasini Bakre, Mangal also won the Women’s doubles title along with Ujwala Marathe and Mixed doubles title along with Dinkar Selarka .mangal however, did not play in the team event for personal reason. For Prakash kelkar it was yet another double, as the evergreen stylish left hander won his 12th Master’s title, 4 each in 40+, 50+ and 60+respectively. When former international Sunil Babras was approached to know the number of Master’s titles won by him so far, he said that he didn’t exactly remember the number of titles. “My be about 10,” he said with a smile on his face. One thing is sure that he has maintained his form and fitness at 50+ .
Mangal Saraf
There were some very good performances by Maharashtra players. And prominent among them was Nitin Mehendale in Men’s 50+ event. Nitin knocked out 2nd seeded Harsh Chopra from Delhi in quarter finals. But, he later lost to Vinaykumar Arora from West Bengal in semi finals. Nitin however ensured his Bronze medal in this event. Another best performance came from unseeded M.S.Subramanium from Tamil nadu in the Men’s 65+ group. He turned out to be the dark horse, who not only surprised Top seeded Yogesh Desai 3-2 in the 2nd round, but also went on to register 3-1 win over 4th seeded Sadhan Dutta from West Bengal in semi finals. He even went on to take 2 games from Suhas Kulkarni in the well contested finals.
Prakash kelkar
In the Men’s 60 event, it was all Maharashtra affair in the semi finals, as four Maharashtra players ensured medals among themselves. But, Mumbai Games Champion Percy Mehta surprised second seed Dinkar Selarka, to play the finals against Prakash kelkar, who had an easy semi final match against Avinash Joshi. A.M. Warunkar was the lone survivor in Men’s 70+ group and managed a Bronze medal for Maharashtra in this group.
In the doubles event too, Maharashtra players proved their dominance, when Vivek Alwani & Prasad Naik in the Men’s 50+ won Gold defeating another good pair from Maharashtra comprising of Dr. Nitin Toshniwal & Navin Salian. In Men’s 65+ doubles brothers Suhas and Satish Kulkarni combined well to win the title. Three pairs from Maharashtra had entered the semi finals of this doubles event and the other two comprising of Yogesh Desai & Deepak Dudhane and Ulhas Shirke & Shivanand Kundaje had to satisfy with Bronze medals. Satish Kulkarni went on to claim his another individual Gold medal for Maharashtra, when he partnering Preeti Pardeshi won the Mixed doubles 65+ finals. In the same event, Shivanand Kundaje and Anjali Kanetkar bagged Bronze medal. Anjali won another Bronze in individual event when partnering Preeti Pardeshi she entered semi finals of Women’s 65+.
Sunil Babras
The Mixed doubles 60+ saw all four pairs from Maharashtra fighting for Gold and in this battle Dinkar Selarka and Mangal Saraf defended their title to bag Gold, followed by Avinash Joshi/ Suhasini Bakre ( Silver), Girish Acharya/ Ujwala Marathe( Bronze) and Percy Mehta/ Mythili Sodhi( Bronze) . In the 50+ Mixed doubles too, three pairs from Maharashtra had entered semi finals, but they could not win Gold. Dr. Nitin Toshniwal & Dr.Anagha Joshi won Silver, while Purshottam Markad / Vaishali Malwankar and Pramod Desai / Pratibha Sawant secured Bronze medals.
The names of the other Silver and Bronze medal winners from Maharashtra are, Pankaj Rahane( Bronze M 40+ Singles) , Ulhas Shirke Bronze M 65+ Singles), Shruti Kanade Joshi ( Bronze W 40+), Manish Rawat & Rohit Choudhari (Silver MD 40+) , Jayant Kulkarni & Percy Mehta ( Silver MD 60+), Arun Dhotre & Jeetu mawani ( Bronze MD 60+), Avinash Kothari & Vidur Pendharkar ( Bronze MD50+), Sushma Mogre & Shruti kanade Joshi ( Bronze WD 40+), Dr.Anagha Josji & Neeta Kulkarni ( Bronze WD 50+), Jyoti Kulkarni & Vibhavari Bhalchandra ( Bronze WD 60+), Suhasini Bakre & Rajeshwari Mehtre ( Bronze WD 60+).
All in all, there was a good show by Maharashtra players in individual events , bagging maximum medals . And this certainly calls for a big felicitation function to appreciate their performance at All India level.