India women’s team won a historic bronze medal at the Asian Table Tennis Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan on Wednesday.
It is the first-ever medal in women’s team event for India since Asian Table Tennis Union started conducting the competition in 1972.
India lost 1-3 to Japan in the semifinals while China defeated Hong Kong 3-0 in the other semifinal. Both losing semifinalists are awarded bronze medals.
Ayhika Mukherjee went down 2-3 (8-11, 11-9, 8-11, 13-11, 7-11) to Miwa Harimoto in a tightly contested opening singles. Manika Batra levelled things up with a 3-0 (11-6, 11-5, 11-8) victory over Satsuki Odo.
However, Mima Ito defeated Sutirtha Mukherjee 3-0 (11-9, 11-4, 15-13) and Harimoto took down Batra 3-1 (11-3, 6-11, 11-2, 11-3) to seal the tie for Japan.
India had defeated South Korea 3-2 in a nail-biting quarterfinal on Tuesday to confirm the medal.
Later in the day, the Indian men’s team takes on host Kazakhstan in the quarterfinals.
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