Indian boys beat South Korea to enter Asian Junior TT final

Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia): Indian boys entered the final of the 22nd Asian Junior and Cadet Table Tennis Championships, beating South Korea 3-2 to assure themselves of at least a silver medal here on Tuesday.

The result also helped the team to directly qualify for the World Junior Championships to be held in Thailand in November. China blanked out Taipei 3-0 and will take on India in the final.

Top three teams at the continental event here qualify for the Worlds but with no third-place playoff, the third team's fate will be decided on the individual players' performance from Tapei and Kore, the bronze medallists and other teams including Japan. In the individual events, which begin from Thursday, Japanese players stand a good chance to qualify as the third squad for the Worlds.

This was the second consecutive final for India's junior boys, who are seeded No. 2 behind China, and it was achieved when Anukram Jain, playing the third singles in the semi-finals, did what Harmeet Desai had done in the World Championships to put India in the Championships Division and again in the Commonwealth Championships this July in Cuttack to help Indian men win gold.