Muscat, India’s young paddlers continued their medal rush on the world stage, grabbing as many as seven medals, including one gold and one silver, in the Oman Junior and Cadet Open here late on Friday night.
The India B team in the cadet girls’ competition were the country’s top performers in this ITTF Premium Junior Circuit event, clinching gold. Led by Kavya Sree Bhaskar and Nilishma Sarkar, they took on the mighty Chinese Taipei 1 in the title round and came out triumphant.
Kavya Sree led from the front, winning both her singles contests, to give the team an easy 3-1 victory. The formidable Chinese Taipei team was represented by Pu-Syuan Cheng and Yuan-Ting Liang of Taipei.
India A, comprising Taneesha S. Kotecha and Suhana Saini, earlier went down fighting to India B to settle for the bronze in the same category.
In cadet boys, both the Indian teams fell by the wayside in the semifinals to secure a bronze each. The India A team of Aadarsh Om Chettri and Divyansh Srivastava went down 0-3 to Chinese Taipei 1 while the India B team of Raj Preyesh Suresh and Sarth Mishra too lost by an identical margin.
The junior girls’ event, which was played in a round-robin format, saw India A comprising Swastika Ghosh and Anargya Manjunath collect a total of seven points to finish second on the table to earn a silver, courtesy their three wins from four matches.
Their 2-3 loss to eventual champions Chinese Taipei cost them the top spot and the gold. The India B team, made up of Munmun Kundu and Anusha Kutumbale, collected a total of six points with two wins from four matches to win the bronze.
India B consisting of Shreyaans Goel and Himnakulhpuingheta Jeho lost 1-3 to Iran in the round of four to bag the bronze medal in junior boys’ event.