Kumta/AbuDhabi: A young lad from Kumta among four others managed to bring gold and silver medals to the country after battling various levels in the table tennis game at the 'Special Olympics World Games 2019' held in Abu Dhabi, UAE. 

Sandesh Krishna Harikantra, a student of Dayanilaya Special School in Kumta, who represented India, triumphed gold medal in men's single division in 16-21 years category in Table Tennis game after defeating Siberia in the finals. He managed to qualify for finals after outclassing Egypt in Semi finals, while Switzerland in Quarter finals. In men's doubles division-2, Sandesh and his team mate Tukaram clinched gold medal.

The other Indians who received gold medals include Anu Chennekota from Andhra Pradesh won in Women's single 16-21 years division-3 category, Sabita Yadav won in division-4, and Akash Tukaram from Maharashtra won men's single. The silver medal was bagged by Reshma Shaikh.

Speaking to SahilOnline, Coach Cyril Salu Lopes said, "Sandesh has been with me for the last five years and Akash don’t train under me continuously but I train him during the competitions. The girls are also from different state and they have also been exceptional as you have seen. 

Cyril also informed that his student Sandesh had a regular practice of six hours per day.

“The first participate was in taluk, then district, regional, interstate, state and nationals. After that we had five pre-preparatory camps in different parts of India, where we had 1000 kids and from that it was reduced to 500 and 300 before selecting five best who are here. Hence this is the best ever show. All these players are participating in their first Special Olympics and to get such a result is phenomenal,” said Lopes.