Asian Table Tennis Championships 2024: Ayhika-Sutirtha secure historic bronze; India finish with three medals

India’s top-ranked women’s doubles pair of Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee claimed a historic bronze medal after their semi-final loss at the Asian Table Tennis Championships 2024 in Astana, Kazakhstan on Sunday.

Ayhika and Sutirtha became the first all-Indian women’s doubles table tennis pair to win a medal at the Asian Championships. Gool Nasikwala won a gold medal in women’s doubles with Japan’s Yoshiko Tanaka in the inaugural edition in 1952.

The Mukherjees, 15th in the table tennis rankings, lost to Japan’s world No. 33 Miwa Harimoto and Miyuu Kihara with a 3-0 (11-4, 11-9, 11-9) scoreline. The losing semi-finalists are awarded bronze medals at the Asian Table Tennis Championships.

Ayhika and Sutirtha held a four-point lead against their opponent in the second game.

However, Miwa Harimoto, part of Japan’s Paris 2024 Olympics silver-medal team, and Miyuu Kihara, a three-time World Championships medal winner, staged a swift comeback to deny the Indian table tennis players any further openings.

The Mukherjees made history at the Asian Games last year by winning India’s first medal, a bronze, in the women’s doubles. In Tunis last year, Ayhika and Sutirtha became the first Indians to win the WTT Contender women’s doubles title.

India ended the Asian Table Tennis Championships 2024 with three medals – all bronze.

The Indian women’s team won a historic bronze medal after losing its semi-final against Japan. It was India’s first medal in the women’s team event since the Asian Table Tennis Union (ATTU) started organising the competition in 1972. The Indian men’s team won their third straight bronze medal.

Overall, India’s tally at the Asian Championships now stands at eight, with all eighth being bronze.

Former Commonwealth Games champion Manika Batra was knocked out in the pre-quarterfinal of the women’s singles while Sharath Kamal could not progress beyond the round of 64 in the men’s singles