Pritha becomes first Pune girl to win national gold medal in cadet table tennis
Earlier, Pune’s Divya Deshpande had won gold medals for the city in junior, youth and senior categories. Her latest title was in 2015 in the senior category. However, Pritha is the first to win the cadet title.
City player Pritha Vartikar created history on Wednesday, as she became the first girl from the city to win a gold medal in the cadet category of the national table tennis tournament. In the National Ranking Table Tennis Championships ( East Zone) held at Siliguri, West Bengal, Pritha defeated Nehal Venkatasamy of Tamil Nadu 11-7, 11-9, 11-6, 11-8 to achieve this feat.
Earlier, Pune’s Divya Deshpande had won gold medals for the city in junior, youth and senior categories. Her latest title was in 2015 in the senior category. However, Pritha is the first to win the cadet title.
Pritha is a well-known name in the Pune district and state ranking tournaments for her consistence performance. She has been winning district ranking tournaments for the past several years and now has displayed her supremacy at the state-level too by helping Pune win gold medals. In the recently held 48th Inter-District and 79th Maharashtra State Table Tennis Tournament at Shiv Chhatrapati sports complex in Balewadi, Pune, she was instrumental in the cadet girls’ team gold medal win and later won an individual gold as well.
In the nationals, she had a fairly easy outing. She got the better of top-seeded Suhana Saini of Haryana 11-1, 11-9, 11-9 in the semi-finals. She will now head for Noida, New Delhi for her first-ever international tournament starting from October 28, informed her coach Rohit Choudhary.
Pritha is a Class VI student of Modern High School and trains at the Radiant Sports Academy, Kothrud. She is supported by Pune-based sports NGO Lakshya.
Meanwhile, in the all-Maharastra Boys’ final, Mumbai's Dev Shroff overcame Thane's Deepit Patil 4-0 to clinch the coveted gold for his state.