New Delhi: Manav Sthali Public School, Rajinder Nagar (R-Block) gave themselves a semblance of chance as their Senior Boys beat Mount Carmel 3-2 to enter the quarterfinals of the 11Even Sports Inter-School Table Tennis Championships at the Thyagraj Stadium here today.
The other teams that made it to the quarterfinals included, Bal Bharti Public School (Rohini), Springdales Public School (Pusa Road), Indraprastha World School, Sachdeva Public School (Rohini) and Bal Bharti Public School (Punjabi Bagh).
In the Junior Boys category, the teams that went past the pre-quarterfinals included BIS (Paschim Vihar), HRMS, Adarshila Vidhya Peeth, Sachdeva Public School (Rohini),Vishwa Bharti (Dwarka), Apeejay (Pitam Pura) and the Bal Bharti School (GR).
One match in each of the Senior and Junior sections—Bhatnagar International School (Paschim Vihar) and ASN School (Mayur Vihar)—had been put off by a day following requests from the school authorities owing to some examinations their boys were taking. Chief Referee A.
S. Kler acceded to their requests and their matches will be completed tomorrow morning and the winners in each section will make the quarterfinal grade.
Though most of the boys from 36 schools are regulars, competing in Delhi State Ranking events, the schools that survived the knockout format on the inaugural day were the ones that had paddlers of high potential.
Yet the best match of the day, however, was witnessed in the Senior Boys when Mount Carmel took Manav Sthali the full distance. In the see-saw battle, Manav Sthali’s Rishabh Bhatia gave a rousing start beating Darvesh 11-6, 11-2, 11-9 to put his school 1-0 up. But Ekam made it a one-sided affair against Manav Sthali’s Anshul as the latter lost 1-3.
However, both Rishabh and Anshul combined well to take 2-1 lead before Ekam restored parity when he beat Rishabh in a thrilling five-setter 10-12, 11-8, 12-10, 9-11, 11-5. This should have given sufficient confidence to Mount Carmel but Anshul played brilliantly in the decider to overcome a fighting Darvesh 10-12., 11-4, 11-3, 11-4 despite the latter starting well. Anshul did well to come back after the first game loss and played an attaching game to see this team through.
Yet another match that went down to the wire was between Indraprastha World School and Modern School (Vasant Vihar) which the former won 3-2. If Adhiraj of Modern School was the weak link, it was Vansh who played a stellar role for the IWS as Vansh not only won his reverse singles but also combined well with Rahul to take the crucial doubles rubber for their team.
The matches in Senior Girls and Junior Girls sections will begin tomorrow up to the pre-quarterfinal rounds.
Results:
Senior Boys: Bal Bharti Public School beat Mother’s International 3-1, Springdales School beat Amity International 3-0, Manav Sthali bt Mount Carmel 3-2, Indraprastha World School beat Modern School 3-2, Sachdeva beat BBPS 3-0, BIS beat DPS 3-1, BBPS bt St Cecilia’s Public School 3-0.
Junior Boys: HRMS beat BBPS 3-0, BIS bt St Marks 3-1, Adarshila bt BBPS 3-1, Sachdeva beat Indraprastha WS 3-0, Vishwa Bharti beat Mother’s International 3-0, Apeejay beat G.D. Goenka 3-0 (w/o), BBPS bt Presidium 3-0.
