Railways women out of senior nationals with defeat in quarters

The Railway Sports Promotion Board RSPB women made an unceremonious exit in the quarterfinals of the 83rd Senior National and Inter-State Table Tennis Championships here on Wednesday.But what was more shocking was the elimination of runners-up Delhi and bronze medallist Telangana in the mens team events, paving the way for RSPB and Maharashtra A to enter the medal rounds.

The Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) women made an unceremonious exit in the quarterfinals of the 83rd Senior National and Inter-State Table Tennis Championships here on Wednesday.

But what was more shocking was the elimination of runners-up Delhi and bronze medallist Telangana in the men's team events, paving the way for RSPB and Maharashtra A to enter the medal rounds. Maharashtra A's first thrashed Delhi 3-0, and the Railmen steamrolled Telangana 3-2 in a thrilling quarterfinal. Both the men's and women's Petroleum teams entered the finals, beating the Railways and Bengal A, respectively, with similar verdicts of 3-0.

In the other two semifinals, Maharashtra A women defeated Tamil Nadu Table Tennis Association 3-0 and their men beat Bengal A 3-2 in what turned out to be an edge-of-the-seat encounter.

Diya Chitale, Swastika Ghosh and Anannya Basak led their team into the final, as did Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB), downing runners-up Bengal A with an identical margin.

As for the semifinal, it was a cakewalk for the team as TNTTA failed to repeat their quarterfinal performance against TTTA.