Durgapur, January 20: Manav Thakkar turned the real hero as Petroleum Sports Promotion Board exacted sweet revenge for last year’s loss and defeated West Bengal 3-1 to lift the glittering Youth Boys trophy, while the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) etched their name for the first time on the Youth Girls silverware when they wrested it from Tamil Nadu with a clean verdict in the 11Sports 79th Junior and Youth National Table Tennis Championships at the Sidhu Kanu Indoor Stadium here today.

Earlier, PSPB Academy blanked out Gujarat 3-0 in Junior Boys final and West Bengal thrashed Tamil Nadu a 3-1 in Junior Girls’ title-clash.

If PSPB managed to lay their hands on both trophies, it was a big loss for Tamil Nadu girls who lost their No. 1 position after they failed to retain the Junior Girls crown and end up being the bride’s maid in both team finals.  

The mere presence of Manav, who is No 2 in the world, was good enough to assure PSPB or, for that matter, its Academy the collection of silverwares. And he did not belie the expectation, despite being taken the full distance by Ronit Bhanja of West Bengal in Youth final. Siddesh Pande’s loss in the second rubber did not make any difference as Jeet Chandra in his singles against Abhimanyu Mitra and Manav again, in the reverse singles against Anirban Ghosh, did a clinical job to finish in style.

PSPBA boys had earlier made a mincemeat of Gujarat to retain the Junior Boys title as he and Anukram Jain did their job to perfection to post a 3-0 triumph in the final. Even the left-handed Manush Shah could not stop a rampaging Manav, however hard the Gujarat spearhead tried. Once Anukram won easily against Ishaan Hingorani, it was curtains for Gujarat with doubles going the PSPBA way.

RBI, with newly-recruited seasoned campaigners like Ayhika Mukherjee, Sreeja Akula and Priyadarsini Das, made it a child’s play against Tamil Nadu which lacked in substance in Youth Girls. One expected Tamil Nadu to give some fight, but the results proved it otherwise.  

In Junior Girls, despite having the same line-up as they did last year, Tamil Nadu could not deny West Bengal their chance this time. With Prapti Sen in a roaring form this season and Yashini Sivashankar, unable to maintain her own, it was easy all the more for the hosts. As expected, Prapti beat Yashini with a bit of struggle after the Tamil Nadu girl had gone 2-1 up. But Surbhi Patwari could not sustain the team lead and lost to Selena 1-3. Yet, the two West Bengal girls combined well to outwit their opponents in doubles to make most of Tamil Nadu errors. With a nice cushion, the confident Prapti just steamrolled Selena in straight games to lift the gleaming team trophy.

Results (Team Championships):

Junior Boys: Final: PSPBA bt Gujarat 3-0 (Manav Thakkar bt Manush Shah 11-8, 11-8, 11-8; Anukram Jain bt Ishaan Hingorani 12-14, 11-6, 11-8, 11-6; Manav-Anukram bt Manush-Ishaan 11-3, 11-7, 4-11, 11-8); Semi-finals: PSPBA bt Telangana 3-0 (Manav Thakkar bt SFR Snehit 11-7, 11-3, 11-4; Anukram Jain bt Ali Mohammed 11-8, 11-4, 12-14, 11-9; Manav-Anukram bt Snehit-Ali 9-11, 11-9, 11-2, 11-8); Gujarat bt West Bengal 3-1 (Ishaan Hingorani lost to Akash Pal 11-9, 8-11, 4-11, 11-8, 4-11; Manush Shah bt Rounak Mazumder 6-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-13, 13-11; Manush-Ishaan bt Akash-Rounak 11-13, 11-8, 11-6, 11-8; Manush Shah bt Akash Pal 12-10, 11-13, 11-6, 9-11, 11-9).

Junior Girls: Final: West Bengal bt Tamil Nadu 3-1 (Prapti Sen bt Yashini Sivashankar 11-8, 7-11, 12-14, 11-8, 11-6; Surbhi Patwari lost to Selenadeepthi Selvakumar 11-9, 3-11, 4-11, 9-11; Prapti-Surbhi bt Yashini-Selena 11-6, 5-11, 11-5, 11-4; Prapti Sen bt Selenadeepthi Selvakumar 11-2, 11-8, 11-5); Semi-finals: Tamil Nadu bt Telangana 3-0 (Yashini Sivashankar bt Varuni Jaiswal 11-6, 5-11, 9-11, 11-6, 12-10; Selenadeepthi Selvakumar bt Pranitha Grlapati 9-11, 11-3, 11-13, 11-6, 11-7; Yashini-Selena bt Varuni-Pranitha 11-7, 11-8, 12-10); West Bengal bt Madhya Pradesh 3-1 (Prapti Sen lost to Anusha Kutumbale 4-11, 10-12, 6-11; Surbhi Patwari bt Khushi Jain 11-9, 10-12, 11-6, 11-6; Prapti-Surbhi bt Anusha-Aru 11-13, 11-9, 11-5, 11-9; Surbhi Patwari bt Anusha Kutumbale 8-11, 11-5, 6-11, 11-6, 11-9).

Youth Boys: Final: PSPB bt West Bengal 3-1 (Manav Thakkar bt Ronit Bhanja 11-2, 7-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-5; Siddesh Pande lost to Anirban Ghosh 11-7, 11-7, 9-11, 7-11, 8-11; Jeet Chandra bt Abhimanyu Mitra 11-8, 11-7, 4-11, 13-11; Manava Thakkar bt Anirban Ghosh 11-5, 9-11, 11-7, 11-8); Semi-finals: West Bengal bt Gujarat 3-0 (Ronit Bhanja bt Ishaan Hingorani 11-5, 10-12, 11-2, 11-2; Anirban Ghosh lost to Manush Shah 5-11, 11-6, 5-11, 4-11; Abhimanyu Mitra bt Kaushal Bhatt 11-3, 11-3, 11-6; Anirban ghosh bt Ishaan Hingorani 13-11, 7-11, 11-1, 11-6); PSPB bt Maharashtra A 3-1 (Siddesh Pande bt Sanish Ambekar 13-11, 11-6, 2-11, 10-12, 11-3; Manav Thakkar bt Ravindra Kotiyan 11-13, 11-6, 11-6, 13-11; Utkarsh Gupta lost to Shubham Ambre 11-13, 8-11, 11-13; Manav Thakkar bt Sanish Ambekar 11-4, 11-3, 11-7).

Youth Girls: Final: RBI bt Tamil Nadu 3-0 (Sreeja Akula bt Yashini Sivashankar 11-7, 7-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9; Ayhika Mukherjee bt Selenadeepthi Selvakumar 13-11, 10-12, 11-6, 11-9; Priyadarsini Das bt Deepika Neelakandan 7-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-8); Semi-finals: Tamil Nadu bt Kerala 3-0 (Selenadeepthi Selvakumar bt Nandini Menon 11-3, 11-7, 11-5; Yashini Sivashankar bt Seraha Jacob 12-10, 11-5, 9-11, 11-5; Abhinaya Ramesh bt Renuka Aswani 11-2, 5-11, 11-4, 11-5); RBI bt Maharashtra A 3-0 (Sreeja Akula bt Srushti Haleangadi 11-7, 12-14, 11-6, 11-9; Ayhika Mukherjee bt Shreya Deshpande 11-7, 11-8, 11-8; Priyadarsini Das bt Ashlesha Trehan 11-8, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7).