Nagoya: Indian table tennis stars Manush Shah and Diya Chitale have secured a medal in the mixed doubles event after a stunning win over world No. 4 Wong Chun-Ting and Doo Hoi Kem of Hong Kong in the quarterfinals here on Friday.
The Indians registered a 3-1 (11-6, 13-15, 11-9, 11-5) to enter the semifinal and secure a medal in the Table Tennis Mixed Doubles event. Manush and Diya will take on Chinese world No. 2 Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha in the semifinals later in the day, aiming to make India’s first final of an Asian Games table tennis event.
This would be India’s second mixed doubles medal at the Asian Games after Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra bagged bronze in the 2018 edition in Jakarta, and only Indian TT’s fourth overall at the Games.
Manush-Diya made a strong start and took the first game 11-6, then pushed the Hong Kong pair all the way before losing the second narrowly, 13-15. When the best-of-five affair was tied 1-1, the Indian showed encouraging signs as they pocketed the third game, 11-9, leaving them just a one-game away from securing a medal.
Manush and Diya ran and then went all guns blazing as they ran away with the fourth game convincingly 11-5 and assured a medal.
To date, India have won only three Asian Games medals in table tennis – all bronze.
Manika Batra, along with Olympian Sharath Kamal, had won a mixed doubles bronze at Jakarta 2018. Harmeet Desai, G Sathiyan and Manav Thakkar – all part of the squad for Aichi-Nagoya 2026 – were also members of the men’s team which bagged bronze in Jakarta. Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee accounted for the other bronze in women’s doubles at Hangzhou 2023.
Meanwhile, Indian shooters Kamaljeet and Suruchi Inder Singh secure their place in the 10m air pistol mixed team final after topping the qualification here on Friday.
The India pair topped the 21-team qualification round with a score of 587 with 29 inner 10s. Iran (584-17x), South Korea (582-23x) and Indonesia (580-30x) are the other teams through to the four-team final.
(IANS)
