Aadil Anand wins 2 gold at Tunisian Junior & Cadet TT meet

Paddler Aadil Anand delivered two gold medals as India bagged six medals in the Tunisia Junior and Cadet Open which concluded here.

Aadil,12, upstaged Algeria's Abdelwahab Bellahsene 3-1 (11-6, 9-11, 11-5, 11-6) to claim the honours in the Mini-Cadet Singles on Friday and then teamed up with Payas Jain for the Cadet Boys doubles gold, according to a release.

The Indian duo cruised past the local pair of Aziz Jerbi and Amine Mohamed Oueslati in straight games 11-9, 11-7, 11-8 for their triumph.

Overall, the young lads bagged a rich haul of two gold, two silver and two bronze medals for the country in the ITTF Junior World Junior Circuit tournament.

Aadil was over the moon on his maiden success for the country and thanked the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) and former national champion and acclaimed coach Kamlesh Mehta for his guidance.

"I am so happy that after three years of hard work, I am being rewarded for my efforts. I will cherish this for a long time, particularly as it's my first title for India. I believe this will spur me on for subsequent tournaments," he said.

Payas had to settle for the silver in the Cadet Boys Singles losing the title clash to China's Liu Menglong 3-1 (6-11, 13-11, 11-9, 11-7).

Manush Shah put up a gallant display in the Junior Boys Singles final but had to be content with a silver medal as he failed to get past Iran's Amin Ahmadian, losing 2-4 (7-11, 11-5, 11-9, 8-11, 10-12, 9-11).

Manush also secured a bronze as he and Manav Thakkar were the losing semi-finalists in the Junior Boys doubles. They went down to the Chinese pair of Wang Yihao and Zhang Shangzheng 1-3.

Mainak Nistala, who lost to Aadil in the semi-finals of the Mini-Cadet boys' singles, picked up the other bronze medal.

--IANS

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