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ICF: Indian women, men win team championships
The men blanked Sri Lanka and the women crushed Maldives by identical 3-0.
PUNE Led by their two world champions, Prashant More and S Appoorwa, India retained their team titles with ease at ongoing 8th Carrom ICF Cup at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana that ended on Friday.
The men blanked Sri Lanka and the women crushed Maldives by identical 3-0. Maldives had surprised fancied Sri Lanka in the semifinal.
Bangladesh won the men’s bronze by beating the Maldives 2-1. The women’s bronze was won by Sri Lanka, wwho beat the Maldives by a 3-0 margin.
More beat former world champion Nishantha Fernando on the top board in straight sets, 25-21 and 25-7.
The second singles between Zaheer Pasha and Shahid Hilmy was quite one-sided. Pasha finished at 25-10 and 25-16. Pasha had a one break-to-finish in this match. He had earlier recorded half a dozen of them in the ‘Swiss League’ on day one.
In the men’s doubles Rajesh Gohil teamed with Irshad Ahmed to beat Dineth Dulakshan and Anas Ahmed at 25-15 and 25-4.
The fancied Indian women, with current world champion S Apoorva and a former world beater Rashmi Kumari in the ranks found the going easy. On the top board Apoorva crushed Aminath Vishama 25-5 and 25-5.
Kumari found her opponent Aminath Vidhaad a tough nut to crack initially, but once she bagged the first set 25-10, the second was a mere formality. Kumari swept her aside 25-0. In the doubles, the Indian pair of Ayesha Sajid and K Nagjyothi beat their Maldivian opponents 25-8 and 25-14.
