Captured by : Dharwatkar Memorial Table Tennis
PANAJI
Kewal Tamhankar, Aditi Chodankar, Jaez Gomes, Aakshan Lawande and Leoma Fernandes emerged winners at the 6th Late Ramacanta V P Dharwatkar Memorial table tennis tournament, organised by Panjim Table Tennis Club in association with SAG, at Indoor stadium, Campal.
In Under-21 Boys, top seed Kewal Tamhankar registered a comfortable 11-5, 11-7, 11-4 straight sets win over second seed Selvyn Godinho, who looked completely out of sorts in the finals. The Under-17 girls final was more evenly matched and keenly contested. At the end of a tense and pulsating five-set match, it was Aditi Chodankar who prevailed over Akshata Nair with a thrilling 13-11, 9-11, 12-10, 5-11, 11-6 scoreline.
Jaez Gomes, competing with his younger brother Jaeden Gomes in Under-14 Boys singles, emerged winner with a commanding 11-8, 11-7, 11-8 performance. In Under-10 Girls, Leoma Fernandes upset top seed Anushree Naik in a 11-7, 11-5, 8-11, 11-4 win. The match of the day was the Under-10 Boys singles which went the whole distance with both the young players battling hard. Aakshan Lawande eventually emerged victorious in an extremely hard-fought 11-5, 11-8, 9-11, 18-20, 11-9 win over Tanay Saldanha.
Following semis and quarters prizes were awarded: Under-10 Girls - Tia Chodankar and Sunidhi Savaika (semis), Sanika Sakhardande, Aarya Kamat, Shrushti Salgaonkar and Raaga Mehta (quarters); Under-10 Boys - Soham Shetye and Dhruv Helekar (semis), Soham Patil, Aaron Faria, Ayush Nadkarni and Vincente Fernandes (quarters). Under-14 Boys - Saurav Singh and Nathan Barua (semis), Ved Sardesai, Shashank Pradhan, Pratyush Kenkre and Sirus Sah (quarters). Under-17 Girls - Shalaka Naik and Sucheta Bansal (semis), Soumya Tari, Niharika Walaulikar, Arya Divekar and Simran Kubal (quarters). Under-21 Boys - Nigel Menezes and Pranav Naik (semis), Anang Mahato, Shubham Mengane, Jayz Gomes and Nilay Kamat (quarters).
The championship was organised to commemorate the 84th birth anniversary of Late Ramacanta Dharwatkar, one of Goa’s foremost table tennis champions who had won many state titles in the past. Sandeep Nadkarni, Chief Engineer, Water Resorces Department was the chief guest for the prize presentation ceremony. Vishnu Kolwalkar, Secretary, Goa Table Tennis Association; Deepak Mayekar, Geologist, Department of Mines and Geology; Mahendra Dharwatkar of Manish Realtors; Noel Estibeiro, Chief Referee and Panjim TT Club office bearers Chetan Kavlekar (President), Ajit Ghantker (Advisor), Sandeep Heble (Secretary) and Joel Andrade were present for the ceremony.
