Ivana finishes as runnerup in Under 9 Nationals

Double Under 8 Girls World Champion Ivana Furtado
added another feather in her cap when she finished second
in the Nationals Girls Under 9 Championships. Local favourite
Harshal Shahi won the Boys title by defeating Jerome Jorge
Ebenezer of Tamil Nadu in the 11th and final round of
the competition in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Commonwealth Under-10 Gold Medalist C H Meghna of Kerala,
seeded seed here, drew her last round game against
Niveditha K of Tamilnadu to finish with nine points
and the title. She edged out Ivana on a higher progressive
score in the tiebreak.

Anirudh Bhat and Riya Sawant also did Goa proud by finishing
in the top 10 of their respective sections. Ivana will now
represent India in the Asian and World Youth events in
2009 as well. Goan players will be representing India
in five consecutive years from 2005 onwards and that
underscores the tremendous upsurge of the sport in the State!