Dhongadee, Kumari bag Men’s, Women’s singles crowns

Yogesh Dhongadee and Kajal Kumari, both from Mumbai District, emerged champions as they won the men’s and women’s singles crowns respectively in the LIC and Indian Oil sponsored 54th Maharashtra state and inter-district Carrom Championship 2018-2019, organised by the Suryavanshi Kshatriya Dnyati Samaj, under the auspices of the Maharashtra Carrom Association and the Mumbai District Carrom Association and played at the Suryavanshi Kshatriiya Sabhgruha Hall, Veer Savarkar Marg, Dadar (West).

In the women’s final, Federation Cup champion, Kumari produced another stellar performance and easily defeated her Mumbai rival Aisha Mohd. in two straight sets, winning 25-13, 24-11 to seal her triumph.

The men’s title clash witnessed an absorbing contest for supremacy as Ghufran dominated play initially and went on to pocket the first set before Dhongadeee won a close second set to level match scores and force the decider. In the third set, Dhongadee, with some tactical play, seized an 18-6 lead, but Ghufran managed to close the gap to 12-18 by the seventh and penultimate board. However, a cool and composed Dhongadee took full advantage of his break in the final board and kept putting away his white coins and also managed to take the queen which put the issue beyond the reach of Ghufran and secured the board to complete a deserving 8-22, 23-21, 24-12 win.

Meanwhile, Shabbir Khan of Mumbai and Shobha Kamat of Kolhapur bagged the veteran men and veteran women’s singles titles respectively.