Putney and Wallington schools pick up gold medals at table tennis finals

Putney High School and Wallington County Grammar School are celebrating claiming gold medals at the Jack Petchey London Schools table tennis finals. 

The Putney squad of Isabella Turner-Samuels, Skye Laing, Martha Ground, Dai-An Nguyen edged out St Marylebone Girls’ School in the round-robin under-13 girls’ event to take gold. 

Both schools won two of their three matches and drew 4-4 when they faced each other. Putney led 2-0 and 4-2, but their opponents showed great resilience to level the score.  

Putney won the gold medal as they had beaten both Tiffin Girls and Morpeth School 8-0, while the margin of victory for St Marylebone was 6-2 in both cases. 

Wallington’s squad of Chid Egbeama, Jacob Archer, Ojasvii Borah and Akal Dosanjh defeated Morpeth School and Ark Burlington Danes by 8-0 margins, and came out on top 6-2 against UCS in the under-19 boys’ event. 

They were never behind in that match, and Chid Egbeama’s fine 3-2 (8-11, 11-8, 5-11, 12-10, 11-9) win over Toby Crawcour to make it 4-1 was a key moment. 

Wallington’s under-19 girls’ line-up of sisters Yuvathi and Anishka Kumar was awarded the under-19 girls’ gold medal as their opposing schools all had to withdraw from the competition. 

The event at the University of East London’s Sportsdock also served as a zonal final for the Butterfly National Schools Championships, meaning the winning teams now go through to the next stage, which is the regional finals.