Bangladesh clinched the gold medal in the boys’ U-19 team category at the South Asian Youth Championship in Himachal, India on Thursday, defeating Sri Lanka 3-1 in the final match.

The win also secured Bangladesh’s place in June’s ITTF-ATTU Asian Youth Championships in Oman.

In the decisive round-robin game, Abul Hashem lost 3-2 in the first match, but Bangladesh bounced back to seal the victory, with Nafiz Iqbal winning the second and fourth matches 3-0 and 3-1, sandwiched by Joy Islam’s 3-0 win.

Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Maldives all finished on five points from three games, but Bangladesh topped the group thanks to superior set wins, having earlier lost 3-1 to Nepal and beaten Maldives 4-3.

Bangladesh had previously won this category in 2022, claimed silver in 2023 and 2024 in Arunachal and Kandy, and bronze in the 2025 edition in Nepal.