by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor

At the final hurdle she overcame Korea’s Yoo Siwoo (11-8, 11-2, 11-8, 3-11, 12-10), having in the penultimate round accounted for the host nation’s Surbhi Patwari (11-7, 11-7, 11-5, 11-6).

”In the final I had a comfortable lead but in I was becoming anxious in the fifth game as Yoo Siwoo kept playing the ball wide. I took a “Time Out” at 11-10; that helped, I served with a lot of spin and Yoo put the ball out.” Maki Shiomi

Both Yoo Siwoo and Surbhi Patwari were surprise packages, neither is the owner of a current world ranking, thus neither occupied a seeded place in the competition. Notably earlier on the concluding day of action, at the semi-final stage Surbhi Patwari had beaten colleague Yashini Sivasankar, the no.4 seed and winner earlier in the year in Jordan. Impressively Surbhi Patwari had prevailed in five games (11-8, 8-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-6).

Runners up spot for Korea, in both the Junior Girls’ Doubles and Cadet Girls’ Doubles events it was gold for the east Asian country with the name of Lee Dagyeong very much to the fore.

She partnered colleague Lee Seungmi to Junior Girls’ Doubles success, the pair beating the host nation’s Manushree Patil and Prapti Sen in the final (11-7, 11-6, 11-7), whilst in the Cadet Girls’ Singles final, she overcame the host nation’s Vanishka Bhargava (11-6, 11-9, 11-7).

“I was a bit nervous in the second game when I couldn’t keep the ball on the table. My opponent took advantage. However, I was confident of winning the gold and played well in the third game. We were playing together for the first time and I was happy we combined well against the Indians; the plan was for Lee to play consistently and I would take care of attacking. Our plan worked well.” Lee Dagyeong

Silver for India, in the Hopes Girls’ Singles event it was both gold and silver; at the final hurdle Suhana Saini overcame Kavya Baskar (11-4, 11-3, 11-4).