Date:29/06/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/29/stories/2008062960141500.htm

Sport - Squash

Three Indians enter final

CHENNAI: Three Indians will feature in the title rounds on the final day on Sunday of the 2nd Asian junior individual squash championship being held at Busan.

In the under-15 boys’ section Mahesh Mangaonkar carved out a convincing win over Malaysia’s Myhammad Addeen Bhahtiar, who is placed in the third-fourth seedings.

The Indian won 9-4, 9-6, 9-2 to move into the title round. In the girl’s section top-seeded Anaka Alankamony defeated her countrymate Sachika Balvani in a similar fashion to book a place in the final.

In the girl’s under-19 section, second-seeded Dipika Pallikal showed a blazing touch to run away with a four game victory. Dipika had a mid-match trough when she dropped a game after a spate of errors.

But the Indian recovered well to oust home favourite Song Su-Mi 9-1, 9-4, 7-9, 9-4.

In the boys’ section, Vikram Malhotra lost to top-seeded Leo Au of Hong Kong in straight games. Down 8-2 in the first Vikram rallied to level the scores at 8-8 but Leo was very consistent from there on and did not let the Indian into the match.

The final score in Au’s favour read 10-8, 9-0, 9-1.

At the end of the day a delighted national coach Cyrus Poncha said, “we are on course to win at least two gold medals on Sunday.

“This is the target set by us at the start of the championship,” he added.