The top two seeds Sharveya Samant, 14 and Akshat Jain, 15, won their respective quarter-final matches and are heading towards a showdown in the boys U-16 final of the MSSA inter-school table tennis tournament.
The No.1 seed Sharveya of Gokuldham HS (Goregaon) called the shots against Dishan Parekh and eased to a 11-7, 11-7, 11-4 win, while Akshat of Vibgyor HS (Goregaon) was in complete control and defeated Arhaan Shah of St Gregorious HS (Chembur) 11-5, 11-3, 11-8 in Last-8 matches at the Kamgar Krida Bhavan table tennis hall, Parel on Friday. Friends and training partners Sharveya and Akshat, both represent TSTTA in the domestic competitions and train regularly at the Prabodhan Thackeray Krida Sankul, Vile Parle.
In the penultimate round, Sharveya will meet Dhruv Parekh of Jamnabai Narsee (Juhu), who overcame Ayaan Valiullah of Fazlani School (Mazagaon) 11-9, 11-8, 15-17, 11-9. Akshat will face Ayush Sonawane of Gokuldham HS (Goregaon) who quashed a spirited fight from Idhant Engineer of St Mary’s ICSE (Mazagaon) for a 11-6, 7-11, 11-9, 6-11, 11-8 victory.
In the girls U-16 competition, top seed Ananya Chande of Arya Vidya Mandir (Bandra) beat Sachi Patki of Bombay International (Gamdevi) 11-4, 11-2, 11-3 in the quarter-finals. In other Last-8 matches, Pahel Shah of St Gregorious HS (Chembur) got the better off Amira Jhaveri of DY Patil (Worli) 11-5, 11-4, 10-12, 11-8, and Jaspreet Kaur Gill of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Vidyalaya (Malad) rallied to overcome Bhoomi Thacker of St Gregorious 10-12, 11-7, 11-3, 11-8. In the girls U-14 semis, Vaishnavi Jaiswal of Pawar Public School (Chandivli) will face Urvi Churi St Louis HS (Andheri), while second seed Sai Malik of Yashodham HS (Goregaon) meets Mugdha Desai of Diamond Jubilee HS (Mazgaon).
MSSA online hockey workshop today
The Mumbai Schools Sports Association (MSSA) will be holding an online hockey education workshop at 7pm today. Hockey India CEO Elena Norman and Olympians Sardar Singh, V Raghunath and Jude Menezes will be the guest speakers. To attend, log in via Zoom Meeting with meeting ID 8976682 5913 and passcode 536019.
