Akshat, Ananya are U-16 champs

Boys U-14 winner Dhruv Shah (extreme left), girls U-16 champion Ananya Chande (2nd from left) girls U-14 champ Vaishnavi Jaiswal and boys U-16 winner Akshat Jain (extreme right). Pic/Atul Kamble

Akshat Jain, 15, of Vibgyor HS (Goregaon) and Ananya Chande, 15, of Arya Vidya Mandir (Bandra) won the boys and girls under-16 crowns respectively in the Mumbai Schools Sports Association (MSSA) inter-school table tennis tournament at the Kamgar Krida Bhavan table tennis hall, Parel on Saturday.

Friend and training partner

Akshat, seeded second, prevailed over his friend, training partner and the top seed Sharveya Samant of Gokuldham HS (Goregaon) in four games, winning 12-10, 11-7, 6-11, 11-9 to claim top honours.

In contrast, the girls final was a closely fought affair with the match going the distance before the more fancied and top seed Ananya Chande of Arya Vidya Mandir (Bandra) regained her composure to win 18-16, 11-4, 11-13, 14-16, 11-7. This was the second MSSA title for Ananya, who had earlier won the girls under-14 crown.

"It feels good to win the gold medal as I played a competitive tournament after a long time. This is my final year in school, so I would like to dedicate this win to my classmates, teachers, and the school management as they have always supported me in many ways, including granting me permission to skip classes so that I could go and participate in tournaments," said Ananya, who won two gold medals (U-13 and U-15) at the Ghana Open in 2019.

Dominant Dhruv

In the under-14 competition, Dhruv Shah of Hiranandani Foundation School (Powai) produced a strong performance to defeat Pradyuman Shenoy of Bilabong High International School (Malad) 11-8, 11-4, 11-0 to win the singles title.

The girls final witnessed a fierce tussle for supremacy between top seed Vaishnavi Jaiswal of Pawar Public School (Chandivli) and second seed Urvi Churi of Yashodham HS (Goregaon). After the scores were level at two-all, Vaishnavi managed to hold her nerve to win a close deciding game to complete a 7-11, 11-6, 11-5, 9-11, 11-9 victory.