Indian paddlers bag 2 bronze at China Junior & Cadet Open

Young Indian paddlers gave a glimpse of their skills by bagging two medals in the junior boys and junior girls team category in the ongoing China Junior and Cadet Open. The tournament is being played at Taicang, China.

Vadodara-based Manush Shah led the charge in the junior boys category, returning with a bronze medal after going down in the semi-finals of the tournament, which is part of the 2019 ITTF Junior Circuit Golden series, a media statement said here Monday. Manush defeated Takeru Kashiwa 4-3 in a nail-biting finish in the round of 32 match.

He then faced Korea's Yik Man Pau of Korea in pre-quarterfinals and won the opening game, but gave away the advantage to lose the next two games. Down 1-2, he launched a good comeback and won the next three games to move into the last eight. Up against the formidable Yuto Abe, Manush proved his mettle and entered into the medal round. However, he could not keep up the momentum in semifinals against the local favourite Kaiyuan Quan and lost 0-4 (4-11, 10-12, 7-11, 4-11) to settle for the bronze.

The junior girl's team of Swastika Ghosh and Prapti Sen sizzled in the initial stage of the tournament and won all their matches to top their group. They won by the same scoreline of 3-0 against all their opponents in the group stage, including those from the Republic of Korea, Chinese Taipei and Sweden. Up against the eventual champions China, they could not replicate their initial performance and went down 0-3 in the semi-finals to be contend with a bronze, it added.