North Zone provides last chance to fringe paddlers

Agra, November 4, 2014: The LIC National Ranking (North Zone) Table Tennis Championships, getting underway here at the Ekalaiva Indoor Stadium from tomorrow, is the last such opportunity for all paddlers, including those on the fringe, to get one more look-in by respective state selection committees before first of the nationals, beginning at Alleppey three weeks from now.

After having participated in earlier zonal events—Central, West and East—the table tennis caravan has moved into this city that is swarmed all the time with thousands of tourists, making a beeline to the Taj Mahal. Incidentally, Agra is hosting its first ranking tournament though it is the eighth overall for the UPTTA.

Of course, the 580 participants here will not only be keeping an eye on a podium finish, however difficult it is, but also try and take time off to visit the Taj, thanks to local organizers’ largesse. Nevertheless, the championships sheen takes a beating whenever top players like national champion Sanil Shetty, Anthony Amalraj and Soumyajit Gosh—he participated only at East Zone last week—pick and choose their zonal events.

Shetty and Ghosh have decided to skip Agra and Amalraj has not made any zonal appearance like Achanta Sharath Kamal. The last two named had even pulled out of the season opener, the Institutional Championships at Delhi. In fact, Amalraj marked a token presence at Delhi before pulling out on the opening day. However, Harmeet Desai, who has no national ranking this season as he has given a miss to all the zonals so far, has sent his entry for the North Zone.  

As for the women’s affair, with the exception of K. Shamini—she too competed at the Central Zone only—all other top women players will be seen in action at the North Zone championships. However, the good news and added attraction is that the two back-to-back titlists G. Sathiyan and Suthirtha Mukherjee in the men and women’s categories, respectively, will be competing here. They are the most in-form players and should be looking to score a hat-trick of titles here.

Yet, with the championships offering 10 medals in the Cadet, Sub-Junior, Junior, Youth and men and women’s sections, the boys and girls will be keen to finish the North Zone on a high note, before the Alleppey Junior and Youth Nationals, starting on November 25.  

Apart from the prize money attraction—the championships carry total prize money of Rs 5.76 lakh—the most significant aspect for a paddler is the points he or she would be earning to go up the ranking charts. A good showing will always help them with tickets to the nationals as selection is based on sheer performance.

The first two days of the championships will see Cadet and Sub-Junior boys and girls who will set the ball rolling with four medals being decided in the two sections. These are followed by the Junior, Men, Women and Youth in that order.

Though qualifiers in the junior categories will begin late on Thursday, those who stand the test of time will go through to the main draw, starting a day later. This will be followed by the Youth category events and, finally, the qualifiers in the senior section on the fourth day.

The championships will have Ganeshan Neelakanta Iyer as the competition manager who will be assisted by chief referee A. S. Kler, deputy referee Atul Dubey and a host of technical team comprising Blue Badge, International and National umpires.