Divyang player from Kutch wins 3 bronze medals in National Championship

Sarla Solanki, a divyang player from Kutch representing Gujarat in the Para Table Tennis National Championship held at Indore, Madhya Pradesh has brought laurels to the district by winning 3 bronze medals in three different competitions simultaneously. Sarla Solanki, a resident of Suwai village in Rapar taluka, won a medal in the Women's Class 8 competition organized by the Table Tennis Federation of India in association with MP Table Tennis Association and Para Table Tennis Promotion Association at Abhay Prasal Hall from February 26 to 28. In the women's singles, she won the bronze medal in the mixed doubles 14 with Maharashtra's Pramod and finished third in the semifinals. In the women's double-14 event, she paired up with Gujarat's Kalpana Goswami (Sai-Gandhinagar) to enter the semifinals. and won bronze medals against Sonal Dabhi of Bhavnagar and Dhvani Shah of Rajkot. According to the sports policy of the Gujarat state government, a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh for a bronze medal in the women's singles and Rs 50,000 each for a bronze medal in the men's and women's singles is eligible for a cash prize of Rs 2 lakh. Sarla, who is currently working as a Senior Technician-1 at Central Salt Bhavnagar under the Government of India. Sarla, who has won medals at the national level for the last four years, won three medals in a single championship this time and recorded a medal hat-trick. "Sarla has registered herself as the first Para (Disabled) player of Women's Class 8 to win three bronze medals simultaneously for the first time in Karchh," said her husband Mansukh Solanki, a para sports mentor and a para sports instructor in Bhavnagar.