The responsibility of giving the hosts a head start in the
six-day event will lie on the shoulders of Senior and top-world ranked Indian paddlers
Achanta Sharath Kamal, Anthony Amalral, Soumyajit Ghosh, Harmeet Desai and
Sanil Shetty. But when it comes to picking the women’s team, the selectors have
gone for the trusted and tried lot of K. Shamini, the national champion, Mouma
Das, Madhurika Patkar and Neha Aggarwal.
The selectors feel the paddlers have been chosen on the
basis of their current ranking and form and reposed their faith in this bunch
of players to do the job during the championships. They also believe that the
extensive preparations of the players both in Sweden
(men) and China (women) will
help the team put their best foot forward in the New Delhi championships.
“We have a good track record in Commonwealth championships
and I don’t see any reason why our players can’t win medals here. In fact, our
players should be aiming to better their best so far,” said TTFI president P.C.
Chaturvedi.
Indian paddlers have won 6 gold, 8 silver and 17 bronze
medals in the Commonwealth championships so far, beginning from 1994 when Hyderabad hosted the
second championships to be held in the country, though we hosted the first
championships in 1982 in Mumbai. Delhi
will play host for the second time after it conducted in 2001. Jaipur hosted
the championships in 2007. Incidentally, this will be the fifth time that India
is host the event.
But the real hunt for medals started in 2004 at Kuala Lumpur when India bagged double gold in the
men’s team and men’s singles. In fact, this proved to be the base on which India ’s future was built on as India became a
force to reckon with in the Commonwealth championships and CWG 2010. Then the team relied on Sharath Kamal,
Soumyadeep Roy and Subhjit Saha. While the men’s team still has the services of
Sharath Kamal, the others will compete in individual events.
“We had taken a conscious decision to send the team members
abroad so that they get the best of facilities and preparations. The feedback
we got from the two coaches—Kamlesh Mehta and Bhawani Mukherjee—is very good
and we hope our paddlers do really well in the championships,” said TTFI
Secretary General Dhanraj Choudhary.
The championships will see 15 (men) and 14 (women) teams
participating in it. The championships will be played on 12 Stag tables with
the synthetic flooring provided by them. Eight practice tables have also been
provided at the same venue to facilitate players’ practice. Nittaku white balls
will be used during the championships.
Neelakanta Iyer Ganeshan, international referee from India will be the referee for the championships
and he will be assisted by Jonathan Whitakar from Scotland ,
Atul Dubey and Chandrakrian Thade, both from India , will be the deputies. More
than 50 umpires will support the technical team.
The daily schedule of matches will be from Morning 0900 am
to evening 0900 pm with a lunch break of 90mts.
The Inauguration of the championship will be held at 17:00
hrs on May 5. The Team Championships
final is slated at 1400 Hrs on May 8, 2013. The finals of the Singles events
will commence at 17:00 Hrs on May 10, followed by the Medal Ceremony.
Team seedings:
Men: 1. Singapore ,
2. India , 3. England , 4. Scotland
Women: 1. Singapore ,
2. England , 3. India , 4. Malaysia
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