By Paritosh Pramanik
WITH a whopping five gold medals, Nagpur’s international table tennis player Jennifer Varghese escorted the Indian team to the podium in the South Asian Youth Table Tennis Championship that concluded at the Dorjee Khandu Indoor Stadium in Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh, on Wednesday.
An ever-improving Jennifer swept the women’s Under-15 age category, winning gold medals in singles, doubles and mixed doubles events to add to her two golds she won in Under-15 and Under-19 team events. She was the third paddler in the Under-19 team event. This was for the first time that Jennifer won five gold medals in a single international competition. Earlier, she had won three medals in the last South Asian Championship at Maldives.
The Indian Under-19 team’s gold medal winning performance fetched it a place in the Asian Table Tennis Championship which is going to be held in Doha in July.
Jennifer, who is coached by R Rajesh from Chennai, was elated with five gold medals. She said she was satisfied with her performance but added that the Asian Championship will be much tougher.
“This one (championship) wasn’t that tough. However, the Asian Championship will be much tougher with teams from China, Japan and Korea being the opponents,” Jennifer told ‘The Hitavada’ from Itanagar after the medal ceremony.
“I am extremely happy and wish to continue with the same momentum in the Asian Championship,” she added.
After helping the Under-19 Indian squad in winning the gold medal in the team event, Jennifer rallied from a game down to clinch the Under-15 singles title defeating compatriot and her doubles partner Avisha Karmarkar 3-1.
Jennifer lost the first game 14-16. But the lanky paddler bounced back to take the remaining three games 12-10, 11-8 and 11-4.
Later in the U-15 doubles, Jennifer and Avisha quelled the challenge from Nepal’s Sushmita Khadka and Subhashree Shrestha in straight games with the scores reading 11-7, 11-6, 11-5.
In the mixed doubles final, Jennifer and PB Abhinand defeated Sri Lankan pair of Mohammed Akram Md Shafiullah and Kavindya Tamadi Alagiyawadu 11-9, 12-10, 12-10 to make it a memorable day.
As expected, it was a perfect 10 for the Indian paddlers in individual events. Taking complete control of the proceedings, the hosts won all the gold medals on offer on the last day of the competition.
Besides, the Indians also bagged four silver medals in the singles. Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Maldives were also among the medals.
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