Manav Thakkar leads junior Indian table tennis team to three medals at Asian Junior and Cadet Championships

India’s junior paddlers, led by World No 5 Manav Thakkar, continued their stellar show, bagging three medals in the individual events at the Asian Junior and Cadet Championships in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar. [caption id=“attachment_4461525” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Manav Thakkar. Twitter/@UltTableTennis[/caption] India had earlier created history by entering the finals of the team championship for the first time. On Saturday, they scripted their names on the medals too, winning three bronze medals in the doubles competitions. In the boy’s doubles, the duo of Manav and Manush Shah beat the Singaporean pair of Chua Sao Han Josh and Yu Zong Jun Gerald 3-2 in the Round of 16 before steamrolling the Iranian combination of Amin Ahmadian and Amirreza Abbasi Monjezi 3-0 to advance to the last four. Up against the formidable Chinese pair of Xu Yingbin and Yu Heyi, they put up a valiant show but had to settle for a bronze as they lost 0-3. Manav then paired up with Archana Kamath to win his second bronze medal in the mixed doubles category. They beat the Kazakhstan pair of Akasheva Zhauresh and Kenzhigulov Aidos 3-1 in the Round of 16 and then got the better of the Taiwanese pair of Peng Chih and Chien Tung-Chuan by an identical scoreline to qualify for the medal round. In the semifinals, they took on the Chinese pair of Xu Yingbin and Shi Xunyao and bowed out of the tournament losing 2-3 in a hard-fought encounter. The other boy’s doubles team of Jeet Chandra and Snehit Surajjula also went down to the Korean pair of the Choi Inhyeok and Kwak Yubin 0-3 to finish their Asian campaign with a bronze.