India put up a spirited effort before going down 1-4 to higher-ranked Japan in their last Group E encounter to draw curtains on their campaign at the World Junior Mixed Team Championships here on Wednesday.
Goa's Tanisha Crasto and Chattisgarh's Ishaan Bhatnagar continued their winning streak in the mixed doubles giving India a much-needed lead over Japan.
Tanisha's precise smashes and Ishan's dominant net play over Japan's Kakeru Kumagai and Atsumi Miyazaki ensured a commanding start for the Indian duo as they bagged the mixed doubles match 21-18, 21-18 in 33 minutes.
However, that remained India's highest point of the day as they lost the remaining matches to bow out of the competition.
In the girls' singles, Gujarat's Tasnim Mir, playing her first World championships, lost to Riko Gunji 9-21 12-21, while Manipur's Maisnam Meiraba Luwang fought for a little over an hour before losing 17-21 21-17 21-23 to Takuma Kawamoto in boys singles.
In the doubles category, Treesa Jolly and Varshini Viswanath Sri lost to Kaho Osawa and Hinata Suzuki 12-21, 22-24 and with this defeat, India lost its chance to level the score.
In the last match of the tie, Manipur duo of Manjit Singh Khwairakpam and Dingku Singh Konthoujam were beaten 16-21, 14-21 by Yoshifumi Fujisawa and Kakeru Kumagai in a 26 minutes match.
"Though the results did not go in our favour but it was surely a great learning experience for the team. Most of the members are players of the U-17 category while young Tasnim who is only 14 years old has also gained valuable experience here," said Sanjay Mishra, Junior Chief National Coach.
The 4-1 loss means India finished second in the group and will compete for the 9-16 classification positions in the knock out stage.
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