It was written all over that the PSPB men and women would dominate the day’s proceedings. And they did that in style by retaining the men’s and women’s team titles in the AAI 48th all-India inter-institutional table tennis championship at the Bharathiar University Indoor Hall here on Friday.
It was title No. 17 for the PSPB men and for its women 15th. G. Sathiyan gave the team the start against RSPB in the men’s section. He played a pretty fast game to oust Railways’ last night hero Anirban Ghosh 11-5, 11-1, 13-15, 11-5.
Sharath Kamal was in a spot of bother against Ravindran Kotiyal. The latter was leading 2-0 but the former was confident of catching up and did exactly that by winning the next three games with ease. In the third tie, A. Amalraj shook off those early hiccups, to defeat Pankaj Vishwakarma 9-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-5 for the title.
Champions: PSPB men who won the all-India inter-instituional title
It was not the case in the women’s group. The PSPB women did face a stiff challenge from host AAI. But with stars in its ranks, PSPB managed to pull off a 3-1 win to make it doubly sweet for the team.
The results (final): Men: PSPB bt RSPB 3-0 (G. Sathiyan bt Anirban Ghosh 11-5, 11-1, 13-15, 11-5, A Sharath Kamal bt Ravindra Kotiyan 9-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-5, A. Amalraj bt Pankaj Vishwa Kumar 9-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-5).
Women: PSPB bt AAI 3-1 (Madhurika Patkar bt Mallika Bhandarkar 9-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-2, Manika Batra bt Surbhi Patwari 11-5, 11-8, 12-14, 10-12, 11-9, Sutirtha Mukherjee lost to Selenadeepthi Selvakumar 11-5, 6-11, 10-12, 13-11, Manika Batra bt Mallika Bhandarkar 11-8, 9-11, 16-14, 13-11).
