Paddlers shine at Thailand Open

Bangkok   :  Indias young paddlers excelled in the Thailand Junior and Cadet Open here, bagging four bronze medals in the team events.

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.