Jaipur, February 14: With entries limited to three teams in Men 80+ and Women 60+ categories, the organizers gave in to the plea of players with the proviso that only one medal would be awarded. And, as a result, the Silver Jubilee edition of the Veterans National Table Tennis Championships saw teams playing the league to decide the winner at the SMS Indoor Stadium here today.

In men 80+, Uttar Pradesh accounted for both their rivals—Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh—to claim gold in the category. In their first match, they beat Gujrat 3-2 but found the going against Karnataka a bit tough before prevailing 3-2.

S.C. Puri and A. N. Bhargava played their role to perfection as the duo won their singles against Krishnamurthy and Shankarappa with an identical 3-0 margin before combing against the Karnataka pair to outplay them. Earlier, they handed out a similar verdict to Gujarat to remain unbeaten in the league. Though Karnataka managed to beat Gujarat 3-2, they will return home without any medal.

In women 60+, there were no takers except three Maharashtra teams fighting among themselves to decider the winner. And Maharashtra A, comprising Sunanda Rao, Rajeshwari Mhetre and Jyoti Kulkarni, kept an unbeaten record to claim the winners’ trophy and the gold medal.

The threesome easily accounted for Maharashtra C with a 3-0 verdict but found Maharashtra B a tough nut to crack, particularly Mangal Saraf. It was she who stood in Maharashtra A way as she won both her singles against Sunanda Rao (13-11, 11-8, 11-9) and Rajeshwari Mhetre (11-7, 11-7, 11-6). But Deepa Jain was their weak link which proved to be their undoing as Rajeshwari and Sunanda won against her. However, the third singles win by Jyoti Kulkarni proved crucial for Maharashtra A. Jyoti beat Manisha Vishwas Bodas 11-6, 11-1, 11-6 to put the issue beyond Maharashtra B.

Semifinal matches in men 40+ and 50+ are slated for late evening today as all team finals will be played tomorrow afternoon. Before that individual events in men 40+ and 50+ will begin with qualification group matches. With 237 entrants in +40 and 268 in 50+, they have been divided into 64 and 89 groups, respectively. Only one from each group makes the cut for the second stage, which will be played on a knockout basis.

Results:

Men 60+ (Semifinals): Maharashtra A bt Tamil Nadu A 3-0; IVC-A bt Gujarat A 3-1.

Men 65+ (Semifinals): Maharashtra A bt Tamil Nadu A 3-1; Maharashtra B bt Gujarat A 3-1.

Men 70+ (Semifinals): Madhya Pradesh A bt Gujaarat A 3-0; Telangana A bt Karnataka A 3-0.

Men 75+ (Semifinals): Karnataka B bt Maharashtra A 3-2; Andhra Pradesh A bt Telagana A 3-0.

Men 80+ (Final): Uttar Pradesh bt Gujarat 3-0; Uttar Pradesh bt Karnataka 3-0; Karnataka bt Gujarat 3-2.

Women 40+(Semifinals): Karnataka A bt Mharashtra A 3-1; Gujarat A bt MP-A 3-0.

Women 50+(Semifinals): MP-A bt Maharashtra C 3-1; Maharashtra A bt Gujarat A 3-1.

Women 60+ (Final): Maharashtra A bt Maharashtra B 3-2, Maharashtra A bt Maharashtra C 3-0; Maharashtra B bt Maharashtra C 3-1.