LOKMAT NEWS NETWORK
Nashik, Nov 20
In the 54th Inter-District and 85th State Table Tennis Championship held at Pune, the players of Nashik district won five gold medals and six silver medals. Notably, Taneesha Kotecha and Kushal Chopda remained champions while Sayli Wani secured the runner’s-up place.
In the under-19 girls' team event, Nashik's girls' team won the gold medal by defeating TSTTA Mumbai's team by 3-1 in the final. The women's team faced TSTTA Mumbai in the final round of the team event. The Nashik team had to settle for a silver medal as they lost by 1-3. Nashik's under-19 girls and women's team consisted of Sayli Wani, Taneesha Kotecha, and Mitali Purkar.
The Nashik district table tennis team won three gold and three silver medals in the team competition. Under the guidance of coach Jai Modak, the girls performed remarkably well.
In the under-19 girls' singles, Taneesha Kotecha clashed with Nashik's seventh seed Sayli Wani. In the final, Taneesha, seeded 12th, defeated Sayli Wani. The score of each round was 4-1, 11-5, 11-8, 8-11, 11-8, and 11-5 to win the gold medal and the state championship.
In the under-17 boys’ category, first seed Kushal Chopda of Nashik easily defeated third seed Sharveya Samant of TSTTA Mumbai in the final to become the state champion of the group.
Kushal Chopda, who is the fifth seed in the under-19 boys category, faced sixth-seeded Jash Modi of TSTTA Mumbai in the final. In a tight match, Jash Modi defeated Kushal to win the title, leaving Kushal to settle for the runner-up position.
In women's singles, Nashik's 10th seed Sayli Wani lost to Nagpur's 17th seed Jennifer Varghese. Sayli took a 3-1 lead in a very tight match. But Jennifer took the next two games to level the match at 3-3 and maintained her challenge, taking an early lead in the deciding game and winning the final game. She won the match by 4-3 to claim the women's state title. Thus Sayli bagged the silver medal by securing the state runner-up position.
President of Nashik District Table Tennis Association Narendra Chhajed, Maharashtra State Sports Director Suhas Divase, Vice President Shekhar Bhandari, Milind Kachole, Secretary Rajesh Bharvirkar, Treasurer Abhishek Chhajed, Jai Modak, Punit Desai, Harshal Pawar, Satish Patel, Aliasgar Adamji, Suhas Agharkar, Mahendra Chiplunkar, Ashok Raut, Vivek Alawani, Ganesh Malve has congratulated and wished them the best for the future.