CITY’S talented paddler Jennifer Varghese started the year on a promising note with a podium finish.

In the UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championship (West Zone) held at Indore in Madhya Pradesh, 13-year-old Jennifer claimed a bronze medal to make a satisfying start to 2022.

In the semi-final, Jennifer went down fighting to eventual champion Taneesha Kotecha 4-1 thus ending with a bronze medal in her pocket.

The city paddler gave tough fight to her opponent before losing the exciting last four game.

The scores, in favour of Kotecha, read 15-6, 15-6, 9-15, 15-5, 15-10.

Earlier in the quarter-finals, Jennifer got the better of Nandini Saha 4-3 taking the games 15-3, 8-15, 8-15, 5-15, 15-2, 15-8, 15-8. In the round of 16, Jennifer, who won the U-17 national championship last year, defeated Archa Jain 3-0 (15-6, 15-9, 15-6) after she started her campaign with a 3-1 win over Sreedatri Roy with the scores reading 15-6, 5-15, 15-9, 15-8.

In the round of 32, Jennifer, who is also Under-15 silver medalist of State competition, got a bye.

Jennifer was supposed to participate in U-15 competition as well but the meet was postponed due to rising COVID cases.