Siliguri, March 10: Siliguri players have entered the annals of Indian table tennis history.

Arjuna award winner Mantu Ghosh, Nandita Saha and Subhajit Saha today returned from 2004-Leibherr World Table Tennis Team Championship at Doha in Qatar after a spectacular performance that helped them secure an unprecedented 25th rank.

Scoring another first, the women’s team also bagged a gold medal at the in Division II of the tournament.

Two out of five-member women’s team were from Siliguri.

The other participants of the team were Poulami Ghatak, Mouma Das and Anindita Chakraborty.

The men’s team, which had Subhajit as one of its five members, secured 27th position.

The players were greeted by friends and family as they reached New Jalpaiguri Station this morning by the Northeast Express.

“It was a dream come true,” Mantu exclaimed.

“India had stood 33rd in the last tournament two years ago, which is why we were playing in the second-division group. Four years ago, our rank was 53. Now that we have stood 25th, we will play in the first-division group the next time,” she said.

In all, 180 countries participated at the meet held between March 1 and March 7. The Indian team bagged the gold medal after defeating Austria, Denmark, Nigeria, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Spain (in the final match).

“It is great feeling to be part of the team which has achieved a record of sorts by winning all the matches at this year’s world championship,” Nandita said.

“Indian table tennis has indeed reached a greater height. What makes it (the performance) more special is that three of the 10 players (both men and women) are from Siliguri, which is a small subdivisional town of north Bengal,” said Amit Dam, coach at Siliguri Table Tennis Academy.