Surat (Gujarat): Title contenders Gujarat team won gold medal in men's table tennis by routing Delhi without losing a set in the finals at India's 36th National Games held here on Wednesday. In women's section, West Bengal team stood in first place by winning over Maharashtra. These were the first gold medal matches in the National Games being held after seven years. Maharashtra and West Bengal lost in men's semi-finals, thereby securing bronze medals. Whereas, Tamil Nadu and Telangana won bronze medals in women's segment.
Gujarat team, the top seed in the men's tournament, was in excellent form from the start of the competition and the only question was whether Delhi could at least put up a strong fight. Such was the dominance of the home team that they did not lose a single rubber and opened their State's account in the medal tally.
Going into the final, the only change Gujarat made was that Manav Thakkar replaced captain Harmeet Desai in the first singles match. Thakkar dominated Sudhanshu Grover in the opening set. Though the Delhi paddler put up a strong fight in the next two sets, he could not get past the former junior world No. 1 and went down 11-3, 13-11, 14-12 in straight sets.
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Delhi hoped that Payas Jain could come to their rescue in the semi-finals but Harmeet Desai proved to be too strong for them. The Delhi player managed to save four match points and claim a comeback but the Gujarat captain was in no mood to back down and grabbed the first two extended points to give his team a 2-0 lead. After this Manush Shah defeated Yashansh Malik and confirmed the victory of Gujarat. Thus, the silver medalists of the previous edition got a chance to climb higher on the podium at home turf.
