Cadet girls grab gold in ITTF tourney

Indian cadet girls on Saturday defeated Chinese Taipei 3-1 to grab the gold medal in the ITTF Junior Circuit Premium Oman Open here.

The Indian paddlers ended the day with a total of four medals in the cadet events while the juniors bagged three.

The B team in the girls cadet event lost their matches to India A and Chinese Taipei but registered wins over Greece, England and Sri Lanka to end up with the bronze medal.

The Indian cadet boys teams also added two bronze medals when they failed to go past the semi-final hurdle, as the A and B teams lost to Chinese Taipei and Russia, respectively.

In the junior girls event, both the Indian teams finished number two and three in group standings to win the silver and bronze medals. While, in junior boys category, one of the two Indian teams won bronze when it went down 1-3 to Iran in the semi-finals.

The gold-winning team of India A in cadet girls, comprising, Kavyashree Baskarand Nilisma Sarkar, had to fight for the yellow metal.

Kavyashree beat Cheng Pu- Syuan 8-11 1-11 11-7 11-7 11-6 but Nilisma lost 11-9 4-11 11-9 11-13 4-11 to Liang yuan-Ting in the second rubber.

The Indian duo then went on to beat them in straight sets of 11-9 11-9 11-9 in the doubles tie to gain the upper hand before Kavyashree sealed their fate in the reverse singles against Liang, winning it 11-2 11-7 5-11 11-7 to finish on top of the podium.