The top-ranked Indian women's pair of Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee created history on 13 October 2024 at the 27th Asian Table Tennis Championships 2024 in Astana, Kazakhstan, by becoming the first all-Indian women’s pair to win a medal.
Astana, Kazakhstan hosted the 27th Asian Table Tennis Championships from 7-13 October 2024.
Before the Astana event, India won a bronze medal in the women’s doubles event at the first Asian Table Tennis Championships, organised by the then Table Tennis Federation of Asia (TTFA) in Tokyo, Japan, in 1952. Gool Nasikwala of India paired with Japan’s Yoshiko Tanaka to win a bronze medal in the women’s doubles.
The Aatana event was the first time that an all-Indian women’s pair won the medal.
The Asian Table Tennis Union (ATTU), which replaced the Table Tennis Federation of Asia (TTFA), has organised the Asian Table Tennis Championships since 1972.
Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee lost their semi-final match against the Japanese pair of Miwa Harimoto and Miyuu Kihara.
At the Asian Table Tennis Championships, the loser of the semi-finals gets the bronze medal.
The world number 15th-ranked Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee pair lost 3-0 to the world's 33rd-ranked Japanese pair.
Miwa Harimoto was part of Japan's Paris 2024 Olympics silver-medal team, and Miyuu Kihara is a three-time World Championships medal winner.
This was the first medal for the Indian women’s doubles team in the Asian Table Tennis Championships since 1972.
India ended the 27th Asian Table Tennis Championships with three bronze medals. The Indian men’s and women’s teams won a bronze medal in their respective events.
Also read: Indian Men & Women's team wins Bronze at Asian TT Championships 2024
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