Dubai: Dubai's Indian High School bagged gold medals in under-14 girls category at the CBSE National Tennis Championship, held in India.
They won the team championship after beating Delhi Public School from Surat 2-0 in the final, while Rikeeta Pereira bagged the individual championship gold in the singles event, defeating Dwani Kumar of Kensri School, Bengaluru 7-2.
Speaking to Gulf News, Dr Tapan Das, head of physical education department, who supervised the team during the tour, said: "It was indeed a creditable show by our school. Our team did not lose any match in the championship and came out with flying colours competing against top school teams in India.
Stand-out performer
"Rikeeta, who is a student from Grade Five, stood out, winning all her matches in the individual championship to score an emphatic victory in the final. We are the only team in the championship to win both the gold medals."
The Indian High School team, made up of Pereira and grade eight students Rhea Rosa John and Divya D. Guwalani, began their campaign by beating Cambridge School from Jalandhar 2-0 in the league phase. In the next match, the following day, they beat Sawai Mansingh High School from Jaipur by an identical margin.
Beating Bala Vidhyamandir from Chennai 2-0 meant they finished top of Pool A, and thus qualified for the knockout stage.
In the quarter-finals they raced past Fahaheel Al Watanieh Indian Private School DPS from Kuwait 2-1, before breezing past Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School from Chandigarh 2-0 to reach the final.
The team emerged victorious, beating Delhi Public School with relative ease.
Pereira then went on to win the final of the individual singles event to put the icing on the cake of a fine all-round performance.
