Chandigarh, February 29:  With the team events getting over last evening, it was a real testing time for individuals as the Stag 23rd Veteran National Table Tennis Championships at the Panjab University Gymnasium Hall entered its most crucial phase here today.

It was evident from 8 a.m. onwards with the qualification matches in three men’s categories—40 plus, 50 plus and 60 plus—witnessing tough contests being fought the not-so-veterans while the 75 plus waiting eagerly for the main draw events to begin with minimum fuss, thanks to lesser number of entries.

However, with a draw of 40 and 64 in 70 plus and 65 plus categories the qualifiers had an extra round as compared to those in the 75 plus who after their first round in the second stages, entered the pre-quarterfinals.

As for the day’s matches, some of them in across all categories attracted more cheers and celebrations because of see-saw battles. For instance, the first-round match between Dinesh R of West Bengal and MVN Kishore of Telangana went down to the wire with the latter winning 11-9, 11-5, 9-11, 7-11, 11-9 in the 50+ category. In another match, Delhi’s Tarun Batra defeted Pramod Desai of Maharashtra 3-2 (11-5, 6-11, 11-4, 9-11, 11-9 while Maharashtra’s Prashant Mathewe struggled past Jaswant Ganta of Himachal Pradesh 3-2 (13-11, 11-9, 5-11, 10-12, 11-9).

In men’s 60+ singles Gujarat’s Kishore Jariwala defeated Sanjay Munshi of Uttar Pradesh 3-2 (11-4, 11-5, 7-11, 6=11, 11-7) to enter the second round of the main draw.

As was expected, the men’s 40+ category saw interesting contests with some of the veterans being doing regular practice matches in their clubs. Obviously, it has done a world of good to several of them who seemed good enough to give a tough challenge to this day’s youngsters.

Delhi’s M. Abhishek had to overcome a stiff resistance from Himachal’s Alkesh Saini before winning 9-11, 13-11, 11-5, 13-15, 11-4 to enter the second round. Similarly, the match between Sikander Jam of Gujarat and K. Santhosh of IA & AD was stretched the full distance. But in the end it was the Gujarat paddler who triumphed with a 11-7, 9-11, 11-4, 9-11, 11-5 verdict.

On the distaff side, except for the match between Preeti of Gujarat and North Bengal’s Swati Satri which the former won 11-7, 14-12, 10-12, 11-2, all other matches were completely totally one-sided with a few walkovers as well in 40+ singles. One match in 50+ between Nutan Dhikale of Maharashtra and Shoba Bave of Gujarat drew attention, thanks to the fighting abilities of both players. The Gujarat player overcame her Maharashtra rival with 11-9, 8-11, 11-5, 9-11, 11-3 verdict, the last game being decisive.

Prize Distribution

After toiling for two days in team events, the teams that reached the podium were given away the trophies and medals by chief guest Mahwa Pal, IA*AS Principal General Audit, Haryana. Speaking on the occasion, the chief guest highlighted the spirit of veterans and said their presence had every Indian proud. “Some of you may have won and some of you may have lost, but in my opinion all of you are winners because you chose to participate in the championships. That is the bottom line for me,” she said.

The biggest cheers, understandably, were reserved for the teams from Maharashtra which cornered glory and maximum medals. In fact, Maharashtra ended with four gold, four silver and four bronze medals for an overall collection of 12 medals to take the top perch on the medals tally. They were followed by West Bengal with one gold and silver and two bronze medals while Karnataka took the third spot with a medal each of gold, silver and bronze. From among institutions, IA and AD benefited being the lone medal winner and that too finishing with the gold. The only other teams in the group to win a gold each was Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh. The last named also claimed two bronze medals.