Times News NetworkKanpur: West Bengal paddlers dominated proceedings on the fourth day of the UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championship played at The Sports Hub (TSH) on Wednesday, clinching three age-group titles.West Bengal made a clean sweep of the Under-11 events, with Debanshu Chakravarty winning the boys’ title and Kritika Saibo emerging champion in the girls’ category.The girls’ final between Kritika and Haryana’s Falgun Gupta turned out to be a thrilling contest. Falgun won the opening game and then took a 2-1 lead, but Kritika showed greater endurance to stage a remarkable comeback.She levelled the score before winning the deciding game to clinch the title 9-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9.The final game saw both paddlers twice reach parity, but Falgun struggled to return Kritika’s smashes at crucial moments. Both players displayed a wide variety of attacking and defensive strokes during the contest.In the Under-11 boys’ final, Debanshu recovered strongly after losing the opening game to Maharashtra’s Rajvardhan. He won the next three games in succession to emerge victorious 7-11, 12-10, 11-4, 11-4. Debanshu’s attacking game put Rajvardhan under pressure in the final two games. He effectively combined spin serves with forehand drives and pushes, while also using counter-drives as a surprise weapon.West Bengal’s third title of the day came through Ariv Dutta in the Under-13 boys’ category. He defeated fellow West Bengal paddler Mahalanabish 3-1 in the final.In the Under-13 girls’ category, Assam’s Ishani Gogoi clinched the title after defeating Delhi’s Khyati Pandey in straight games, 13-11, 11-7, 12-10.The winners’ felicitation ceremony was attended by Shriram Ji, Prant Pracharak, as chief guest. R K Agarwal, Vikas Chaturvedi and Akash Goenka were the guests of honour. The dignitaries presented trophies, flower bouquets and cash prizes to the winners and runners-up and wished them success in their future careers.Sanjeev Pathak, chairman of UPTTA and the organising committee, Piyush Agarwal, director, MHPL, and Praneet Agarwal, CEO, TSH, were also present on the occasion.
