Day 3: Indian Girls Quality For World Meet

New Delhi, July 22: The junior girls did the hosts proud by qualifying for the World Junior Championships to be held in Bahrain after beating Hong Kong 3-1 in a grueling fight to clinch the fifth place in The NCC 17th Junior Asian Table Tennis Championships at the Thyagaraj Stadium on Friday. Thus the Indian girls not only avenged their defeat to Hong Kong in the league phase but also made history by snatching the crucial last berth for the world meet to join the boys team. Thus it is the first time ever that both teams have qualified together. Once before in 2006 the girls team had made it to the world meet in Egypt after qualifying at the Asian meet in Japan. Their victory was not easy as the girls had to sweat it out real hard this morning after having been knocked out in the quarterfinals. They first beat Singapore 3-2 in the morning to move into the 5-6 position playoffs. The match against Singapore went to the wire with all the Indian girls sharing the spoils in equal measure. Both Reeth Rishya and Manika Batra haad lost to Singapore’s defensive player Isabelle Siyun Li, but it was a deliberate ploy knowing the strength of Li. However, the Indian girls concentrated well against the other players to romp home. After their match against Singapore, the girls were back at the table within two hours to take on Hong Kong players. Coach Sandeep Gupta had to plan out even better as the Indian girls had lost to them in the league 2-3. This time the coach preferred Manika to play the first singles and expectedly she beat Ching Wan Lin 8-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-9. Manika was understandably nervous to begin with but regrouped herself to win the next three sets rather easily.  Reeth Rishya, too, played well against Ka Yee Ng to win in four games, 11-4, 12-10, 1-11, 11-9 to give India a commanding 2-0 lead. But Mallika, who has been off colour in the championships, could not match Lok Yee Lo 7-11, 8-11, 8-11 to put India slightly on the back foot. Manika, however, had her own ideas and executing the coach’s plans simply put it across Ka Yee Ng 10-12, 11-5, 11-8, 11-8. After the win, Manika admitted that she was a bit nervous in the fourth but was sure of retrieving herself. “I saw Reeth beating her in the singles and knew how to overcome the early hiccups. We are happy to have made the grade and are looking forward to the Bahrain meet,” said Manika. Meanwhile, the boys just went through their motions against the rampaging Chinese in the semifinals which the latter won 3-0. Only Soumyajit Ghosh managed to win a game off Jiaji Wu, losing 11-5, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9 while rest of the Indians were mere pedestrians against the champions.