Breaking News – El Salvador Junior and Cadet Open Junior Girls Teams

(Courtesy of Bay Area Table Tennis Federation/Photos courtesy of Prasad Naik)
Breaking News – El Salvador Junior and Cadet Open Junior Girls Teams
Two US girls entered the tournament. Ishana Deb is in the US Junior Girls’ Team while Sarika Ahire in the US Mini-Cadet Girls’ Team. In addition to the individual events. These two girls entered the Junior Girls Teams event as a team which will be concluded today.
Good news! Although Sarika is not even 14, she and Ishana are in the Final! This is perhaps the first international medal Sarika ever won. Ishana, on the other hand, is a veteran in the international competition. Although she hasn’t played internationally due to heavy school work, her previous world ranking still puts her as the second seed amongst junior girls.
Team USA is the second seed in the event. Their were groups with Team El Salvador A, Guatemala B, and El Salvador B. Team USA had a good start, a 3-0 over Guatemala B. However, they faced strong resistance in the second team contest. El Salvador A upset the USA 3-2. The girls regrouped immediately defeating El Salvador B 3-1 and finished second in the group. Luckily, two teams advanced to the main draw in this event. A guaranteed medal for the girls already. That concluded the first day competition.
It was a long day for Ishana and her coach Maggie Tian. They took the red eye flight that arrived the morning the tournament started. It was a bumpy flight. They could hardly get any rest. By the time the first day competition finished, they hadn’t slept for 24 hours!
In the second day of the competition, Team USA played the top seed Guatemala A, who finished first in the preliminary round, in the Semifinals. After a good night sleep, Ishana played even better winning her both singles match. Sarika also stepped up winning the critical doubles with Ishana. USA is in the final!
It’s worth mentioning that Ishana has been undefeated in the singles matches so far. Not only that, she has defeated top seed Lucia Gordero of Guatemala, 3rd seed Keren Constanza of El Salvador, and 4th seed Gabriela Romero of El Salvador. Not bad at all!
The final will be played later today. US girls will have a rematch with El Salvador A. Hopefully, this time, they will turn the table. The individual events will start tomorrow. Go, girls!
[Addendum: US girls played brilliantly in the Final. Not only they got it even with the El Salvador A who they lost 2-3 in the preliminary, they did it with a 3-nothing win. Congratulations to the girls for the Gold!]

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