Manav books Youth Olympics berth

Indian paddler Manav Thakkar booked his ticket to the Buenos Aires Youth Olympics by defeating Singapore's Shao Josh Chua 4-0 here today.

The Indian ranked World No 2 beat Chua 11-4, 11-7, 11-2, 11-9 in the final of the Road To Buenos Aires 2018 YOG Series (Asia).

However, Archana Girish Kamath, missed the bus for third time when she bowed out in the quarterfinals to Hungarian Fanni Harasztovich 3-4, said a Table tennis Federation of India media release.

The top-seeded Thakkar accounted for Jacobo Vahnish of Panama 4-0 in the quarterfinals after his first-round bye and went onto defeat Jordan's Khaled Khader, also with the same margin, to enter the final.

With two easy wins to bank on, the Surat boy exploded when he took on the Singaporean and except for the second game, where he allowed the liberty of a few extra points to his opponent, the Indian played to a plan to book his Youth Olympics berth.

A big monkey off my back. I had missed the bus on two earlier occasions but was determined to finish it off here, Thakkar said.

He did admit with coach Massimo Costantini at hand to advice, things became rather easy.

"The coach had flown in just this morning from Halmstad (Sweden) after the world championships to guide me," said Thakkar.

Costantini said he was confident that Archana, too, will qualify in one of the two remaining Road To Buenos Aires Series, including the one in Canada next month.

Archana had every chance to progress in the quarterfinals when she comfortably led 3-2 and 10-8 in the sixth game.

However, Harasztovich got the better of the Indian beating her 13-11, 8-11, 7-11, 6-11, 11-7, 12-10, 11-5.