Petroleum renewed its claim on the men and women team titles by another year following two one-sided finals in the LPS Bossard All India inter-institutional table tennis championship here.

On Thursday evening after the scheduled start was delayed by over an hour, Petroleum’s men dismissed Railways 3-0 after the ladies overcame the defeat suffered by an out-of-form Manika Batra to outlast Reserve Bank of India 3-1.

For the record, Petroleum men won the title for the 24th year in succession, while the ladies now hold the crown for the 23rd consecutive occasion.

The men’s team decided to rest Anthony Amalraj, the man recommended
for Arjuna Award earlier in the day, for the final and finished the job with the help of G. Sathiyan, Soumyajit Ghosh and Harmeet Desai. Only Desai dropped a game to E. Prabhakaran in the third singles after his teammates had finished their job in straight games.

Earlier, Manika continued to struggle and crashed to her second loss in as many ties. The former National champion lost to Ayhika Mukherjee in four games before Madhurika Patkar assumed the familiar role of a rescuer. She won the second and fourth singles. In the third singles, Pooja Saharabudhe stopped Amrutha Pushkar after an extended third game to ensure Petroleum never trailed again.

The results (Team championship):

Men: Petroleum beat Railways 3-0 (G. Sathiyan bt Anirban Nandi 11-7, 11-7, 11-6; Soumyajit Ghosh bt Ravindra Kotiyan 11-4, 11-6, 11-4; Harmeet Desai bt E. Prabhakaran 11-7, 8-11, 11-5. 11-8).

Women: Petroleum beat Reserve Bank of India 3-1 (Manika Batra lost to Ayhika Mukherjee 11-8, 7-11, 4-11, 4-11; Madhurika Patkar bt Sreeja Akula 11-9, 12-10, 11-4; Pooja Sahasrabudhe bt Amrutha Pushpak 11-4,
11-7, 16-14; Madhurika bt Ayhika 11-4, 11-4, 11-9).