September 19, 2008	Friday	Ramazan 18, 1429

KARACHI, Sept 18: The Pakistan table tennis team returned home from Indian city of Pune on Thursday after competing in the ITTF Indian Open World Junior circuit.

The eight-member team including four girls featured in juniors and cadet events.

According to results, Pakistani boys and girls failed to advance for second and final stage in the team events of two categories.

However, up and coming Salman Tahir Virk turned out to be the pick of the tour.

Salman, the reigning national junior champion, went down fighting 2-3 to both Sweden and Indian opponent in his individual group matches of cadet (U-15) category. He also featured in juniors singles where after taking 2-0 lead against an Indian, the eventual cadet champion, he lost 2-3.

Earlier, he had toured Algeria, UAE, Calcutta and Goa with the Pakistan team.

“He can be described as find of the trip,” international umpire Saleem Ahmed, who accompanied the team to India, told Dawn.

In juniors, Abdul Raheem also succeeded in extending Indian and Iranian opponents to four sets before going down 1-3.

The official described the performance of girls as ‘mediocre’.

To a question, he said the competition was organised at the newly constructed Shiripati Sports City gymnasium where Commonwealth Youth Games takes place next month.