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The Indian mens team secured a bronze medal finish at the Asian Table Tennis Championships 2023 after falling short in their semi-final clash against Chinese Taipei in Pyeongchang, the Republic of Korea, on Wednesday.
The Indian mens table tennis team comprising a mix of experienced as well as youth talent of Sharath Kamal, Harmeet Desai and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lost 0-3 in the final four. The two losing semi-finalists are awarded bronze medals at the competition. Commonwealth Games champion Sharath Kamal opened the proceedings for the Indian mens team and lost 0-3 to Chuang Chih-Yuan, who is a former doubles world champion. In the second match, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran fell 0-3 to Lin Yun-Ju, who was one-half of the mens doubles bronze medal-winning team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. In the must-win third match of the tie, Indias Harmeet Desai fought hard but fell short with a score of 1-3 to Kao Cheng-Jui. The Indian mens team, seeded third in the tournament, had earlier defeated Singapore 3-0 to seal a spot in the final four and ensured a medal on Monday. On Tuesday, the Indian women's team of Manika Batra, Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee lost 0-3 to Thailand to finish sixth in the tournament. The Indian trio had previously registered a 3-2 win over Singapore in a 5-8 position play-off tie earlier on the same day. The Indian women's teams medal prospects ended after a 0-3 defeat to Japan in the quarter-finals on Monday. In the mixed doubles, the Indian pair of Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lost 2-3 to Thailands Phakpoom Sanguansin and Orawan Paranang in the round of 32 on Tuesday. Another Indian pair of Harmeet Desai and Sreeja Akula lost 0-3 to the top-seeded Tomokazu Harimoto and Hina Hayata of Japan in the round of 32. The Asian Table Tennis Championships 2023 also served as a qualifier for the Paris 2024 Olympics. (ANI)
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