Bamboleim (Goa), March 24: Destination Goa proved to be very lucky for Kazakhstan’s Kirill Gerassimenko as he defeated championship favourite Lam Siu Hang from Hong Kong 4-2 in the Junior Boys final of the Road to Nanjing 2014 series to book his Youth Olympics Games spot at the Mukherjee Stadium here today. He was joined by South Korea’s Seri Park who downed Singapore’s Yee Herng Hwee 4-1 in the Junior Girls final.

Already 12 other paddlers from different continents have qualified for the Youth Olympics Games to be held at Nanjing later this year.

The No. 2 seeded Kazakh, who won 11-6, 11-8, 4-11, 9-11, 11-7, 12-10, was playing to his strength, which paid dividends. Attacking right from the word go, he blunted his opponent’s strong backhand to a large extent. There were several moments in the final where the top-seeded Hong Kong paddlers looked like coming back. But a cool headed Kazakh made most of Lam’s net errors at crucial juncture to stamp his authority.

So much so, Lam looked frustrated and committed more errors which only helped the Kazakh’s cause. “I was really surprised with the result. Since I know my opponent was strong, I decided to play relaxed and my game. It helped me a lot because if I put stress on my mind, I am prone to committing mistakes,” said the Kazakh, who made it to the RTN final a second time after his France venture.

“Goa (India) proved to be very lucky for me. I will remember both India and Goa for a long time to come,” said Gerassimenko.

On Cloud Nine

As for Seri Park, the Korean was on cloud nine after winning the title as well as booking her berth to Youth Olympics. “I expected a good fight from my opponent, but I won easily,” said Park after the match.

Indeed, Park looked the rightful winner from Day one and it showed in her measured game—first in the semifinals against the Malaysian and in the final against Singapore’s Yee. After winning the first game rather easily, Park was somewhat caught napping in the second when Yee launched her attack to level the score. It was a good wake-up call for the Korean who simply took charge of the final to romp home with scoring forehands.

The Korean southpaw now plans to play in various Global Junior circuit events to prepare for Nanjing YOG. “Once I reach home, I will have some plans up my sleeve after consulting our national federation. I know I have to iron out certain problems in my game and I will sit with my coach to work out on my weak links,” she said. “I will also have to look at some of the videos of European qualifiers,” she added.

The Indians came a cropper as they failed to make a mark in a home championship. However, Suthirtha Mukherjee, seeded No. 1, managed to beat Tang An Qi Angeline of Malaysia to win the bronze. Abhishek Yadav was too pathetic on the day to begin with as he was unable to keep the ball on the table in the semifinals but did put up a fight against Iran’s Amiri Nia Soroosh, who won 4-2 (7-11, 11-5, 11-5, 8-11, 11-6, 11-9).

Ruing lost opportunity

Abhishek admitted that he should have won a bronze at least. “I had an opportunity in the fourth game, but Amiri was able to claim the crucial points at vital times. If I had won that game (fourth) it would have given me a real opportunity stage a comeback. But that was not to be,” rued Abhishek

Coming back to Suthirtha, the Indian put behind her semifinal disappointment to raise his level of game in the positional match against Malysian Tang An Qi Angeline. The Malaysian, who managed to take a game off of eventual gold medal winner Seri Park of South Korea in the semifinals, failed to show the same kind of aggression against Suthirtha.

The Indian, taking early control of the match, defeated the Malaysian 4-1 (12-10, 11-3, 11-2, 12-10) in what seemed to be one-sided affair. “I played an awfully bad semifinal game earlier in the day. I had to give off my best in the bronze medal playoff,” said Suthirtha.

Results:

Junior Boys: Final: Kirill Gerassimenko (KAZ) bt Lam Siu Hang (HKG) 4-2 (11-6, 11-8, 4-11, 9-11, 11-7, 12-10); Bronze: Amiri Nia Soroosh (IRI) bt Abhishek (IND) 4-2 (7-11, 11-5, 11-5, 8-11, 11-6, 11-9); Semifinals: Lam Siu Hang (HKG) bt Amiri Nia Soroosh (IRI) 4-0 (11-7, 11-4, 12-10, 11-9), Kirill Gerassimenko (KAZ) bt Abhishek Yadav (IND) 4-0 (11-8, 11-8, 11-6, 11-6).

Junior Girls: Final: Park Seri (KOR) bt Yee Herng Hwee 4-1 (11-6, 6-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-9); Bronze: Suthirtha Mukherjee 9IND) bt Tang An Qi Angeline (MAS) 4-0 (12-10, 11-3, 11-2, 12-10); Semifinals: Seri Park (KOR) Tan An Qi Angeline (MAS) 4-1 (8-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-9, 11-6), Yee Herng Hwee (SIN) bt Suthirtha Mukherjee (IND) 4-2 (8-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-4, 11-4).