Former internationals from Mumbai like Sunil Babras, Suhas Kulkarni and current veterans’champion evergreen Deepak Dudhane were the star performers as Indian players dominated in the five-nation South Asian Veteran Table Tennis championships, held at Colombo (Sri Lanka) last week. Apart from India players Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal and Maldives took part in this SAV championships, held at St. Thomas Sports Complex, Colombo.
Indian men’s plus 65 team winners (from left)- Satish Kulkarni,. Deepak Dudhane,Suhas Kulkarni and Ulhas Shirke, with their gold medals.
In the team events, India players, comprising mostly Mumbai and Maharashtra players called the shots. They bagged gold in the men’s +50 (comprising Sunil Babras, Kapil Kumar, Ravi Gulgule and Rajesh Mudam), +60 (Prakash Kelkar, Avinash Joshi and Jayant Kulkarni), +65 ( Suhas Kulkarni, Ulhas Shirke and Satish Kulkarni) as well as women’s gold in the +50 (Mangal Saraf, Neeta Kulkarni & Montu M ) categories. In the +40 team event, India narrowly beat Pakistan 3-2 for the gold.
In the individual Men (+40) final, Vikas Mahajan conceded the match to Sri Lanka’s Indika Prasad due to shoulder injury, while Sunil Babras thrashed Pakistan’s Aseem Qureshi in straight games to claim gold in the men’s +50 section and Deepak Dudhane outplayed teammate Satish Kulkarni for the plus 65 title.
Winners in the individual events were:
Men’s singles (+50): Winner : Sunil Babras; Runners-up: Aseem Qureshi (Pakistan).
(+60): Winner: Prakash Kelkar; runners-up: Jayant Kulkarni.
(+65): Winner: Deepak Dudhane; Runners-up: Satish Kulkarni.
Men’s doubles (+40): Winners: Kiran Salian/Rajesh Singh; Runners-up: Indika Prasad/ Prasanna (Sri Lanka).
Women’s (+40) singles: Winner: Shilpa Joshi; runners-up: Deepali Gortakke.
(+50): Winner: Montu M; Runners –up: Anagha Joshi.
(+60): Winners: Mangala Saraf; Runners-up. Sunanda Rao.
(+65). Latika P; Runners-up: Manisha Bodas.