Visakhapatnam, October 19, 2016: The return of the prodigal son—A.
Saharath Kamal—to the domestic circuit, especially for the 11Even Sports
National Ranking (South Zone) Table Tennis Championships starting at the Rajiv
Gandhi Indoor Stadium at the VPT Sports Complex tomorrow, is the best
thing advertisement that can happen to the sport. Incidentally, this will be
first zonal meet that the Rio Olympian will be competing in, this season.
Yet, there is still a drawback as top-ranked Indian in the
world, Soumyajit Ghosh, and North Zone champion Anthony Amalraj have given
another goby to the ranking championships.
However, the presence of Sharath has given the Vizag
organizers, who are hosting a national ranking event after 28 years, a big shot
in the arm and one expects the crowd to rally behind them as well as Sharath to
enjoy his ‘rare’ home appearance. Even his old and friendly Coach Massimo
Costantini, who took charge as the national coach on October 1, will be looking
forward to the icon’s performance.
With Sharath in the thick of action, it would add the zing
that was missing from the men’s singles so far. Of course, G. Sathiyan who won
his season’s first title at Rajkot just a week
ago will have his task cut out as Sanil Shetty, Jubin Kumar of PSPB and
Gujarat’s Devesh Karia, who was a finalist at Rajkot , will also be at his throat.
All said and done, Sharath return also augurs well as the
standard of competition will go a few notches higher as one has seen in the
women’s singles. Suthirtha, already with three silverwares this season, will
give her best shot as the likes of Manika Batra, Madhurika Patkar and Pooja
Sahasrabudde have found out to their chagrin. It has been big struggle for
former national champions like Mouma Das and K. Shamini. However, it was heart
warning to see Poulomi Ghatak, another former national champion, put up a brave
front trying to make a comeback in recent times.
Another good thing of these ranking events is that one gets
to see a lot of youngsters—the future of India —doing consistently well.
Manav Thakkar, Ananth Devarajan, Ronit Bhanja, Birdie Boro and Snehit
Suravajjula in Youth and Junior Boys sections and Archana Kamath, Anusha
Kutumbale, Varuni Jaiswal, Moumita Datta and Prapti Sen, to name a few, in
Girls category have been working hard as the results are proving.
Even in the Sub-Junior and Cadet sections, the boys and
girls have shown a lot of promise and it is indicative of the sport growing,
though not by leaps and bounds, and getting ready to reap a good harvest in the
coming years. The Italian coach has already a good collection of players on his
I-Pad, chosen from the Central and West Zone events, and he would like to add a
few more names to the list after watching players at the South Zone. The
opportunity beckons young paddlers and it is up to them to utilize it and be
rest assured of the rewards. The ball is in their court.
Meanwhile, Competition Manager Ganeshan Neelakanta Iyer said
that C.L. Thade has been nominated as the chief referee for the competitions
here with assistance coming from a team 45 technical officials that include
deputy and assistance referees, Blue Badge, International and National umpires.
Equipment from Stag—flooring, tables and balls—will be used
for the championships which are organized by the Visakhapatnam District Table
Tennis Association and conducted by the Andhra Pradesh State Table Tennis
Association.
The Championships, which will be inaugurated by Chief
Minister Chandrababu Naidu, has received 1100 entries from among 731 paddlers.
TTFI release
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