Bengaluru team Sri Kumaran clinches Junior Boys’ gold

Vijaywada, December 10: Bengaluru's Sri Kumaran Children's Home maintained their unbeaten record in the 3rd 11Sports Inter-School Table Tennis National Championships 2017 here and won the Junior Boys' team title. This is their second consecutive title triumph.

They beat a valiant side Naihati Narendra Vidyaniketan from West Bengal in a pulsating final that went all the way to the fifth game.

In other finals, Techo India Group Public School (North Bengal) tamed Maharishi Vidya Mandir Sr Sec School (Tamil Nadu) 3-0 to take the Senior Boys' title.

Two other Bengal teams, GD Goenka Public School (North Bengal) and Narayana School (West Bengal) won the Senior Girls and Junior Girls' titles to make it a fantastic treble.
Sri Kumaran's Aakash KJ set his school on the victory path, beating Gourav Das 3-0 (11-8, 11-7, 11-7). Srikanth Kashyap, however, lost to Swarnava Saha 0-3 (4-11, 8-11, 9-11) to put the two sides on an even keel.

Aakash and Sujan Bhardwaj got the better of Gourav & Swarnava 3-1 (11-8, 11-4, 10-12, 11-8) to regain the lead. But Aakash lost his reverse singles to Swarnava 0-3 (5-11, 10-12, 10-12) to take the contest to the decider. Sujan proved to be equal to the task, subduing Gourav in a tense 3-2 (6-11, 8-11, 11-2, 11-6, 11-8) battle.

Earlier, Lakshya Biyani of Madhya Pradesh made it to the main round of the Junior Girls' singles in a dramatic way.

All three girls (Lakshya, Samaira Sharma and Rai Sardesai) in Group 17 found themselves in a unique triple tie situation, with each winning one match each and in exactly the same manner: 3-0.
More intriguingly, each of them not only won the same number of points but also lost exactly the same number of points to make it a tricky situation for the organisers.

In the end, a draw of lots had to be resorted to, and Lakshya proved to be the lucky girl.

Results:
Junior Boys: Sri Kumaran Children's Home, Karnataka bt Naihati Narendra Vidyaniketan West Bengal 3-2
Junior Girls: Narayana School West Bengal bt P.S. Senior Secondary School, Tamil Nadu 3-2
Senior Boys: Techo India Group Public School, North Bengal bt Maharishi Vidya Mandir Sr Sec School, Tamil Nadu 3-0
Senior Girls: GD Goenka Public School, North Bengal bt SBOA School and Junior College, Tamil Nadu 3-1