Archana Kamath goes down fighting in semifinals at Youth Olympics

Archana Kamath's stunning run in the table tennis competition of the Youth Olympics ended with a loss in the semifinals here on Wednesday.

She lost 1-4 after valiantly trying to unravel the second seed from China, Yingsha Sun, in a tense encounter. Archana is still in the running for the bronze medal though, when she takes on Romania's Andreea Dragoman later in the evening, early morning in India.

The 18-year-old from Karnataka had created history in the morning, becoming the first Indian ever to enter the semifinals of the Youth Olympics. She defeated Azerbaijan's Ning Jing 4-3 to achieve this amazing feat.

Archana had her opportunity in the fourth game, when she raced away to 5-0 lead and literally toyed with Yingsha to win it 11-1. But her loss in the first three games at 3, 7 and 6 had left her a mountain to climb.

She fought valiantly in the fifth game, which proved to be the decider, but Yingsha had recovered her poise to unleash a series of winners.

Earlier, Archana had to use .