Indian Paddlers shine at Thailand Open

The junior boys, spearheaded by Manav Thakkar, Manush Shah, Jeet Chandra and Snehit S made the most of their first round bye to make it to the medal rounds of this Golden Series event, a part of the 2018 ITTF World Junior Circuit.

They recorded a hard-fought 3-1 victory over Singapore A to enter the semi-finals. But, up against a tough France-Iran pair, they went down 2-3 to miss out on a crack at a better-hued medal here late on Thursday.

The junior girls too suffered a similar fate, getting a bye and scoring a victory before bowing out. Yashini Sivasankar, Archana Kamat and Selena Selvakumar whipped the Croatia-Finland pair 3-0 but ran into eventual champions China A in the semi-finals. They lost 1-3 to settle for the bronze.

The cadet girls too faced the China A hurdle in the last four, capitulating 0-3 to be happy with the bronze medal. They, however, had the distinction of beating Korea Republic A 3-1 in the previous round. Munmun Kundu, Trisha Gogoi and Nithya Mani represented the Indian team.

The cadet boys overcame Thailand A 3-1 but couldn't get past Korea Republic A. The team led by H Jeho, Dev Shroff and Payas Jain lost 1-3.