Date:27/11/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/11/27/stories/2003112701471900.htm

Sport - Table Tennis

Soumyajit, Madhurika given top billing

By Our Sports Reporter

KOCHI NOV. 26. The ambience was enchanting. Some of the country's bright young stars, bathed in bright light, crowding around the twelve tables, awaiting their turn at the action at the Rajiv Gandhi indoor stadium here on Wednesday.

Well, there is a buzz of excitement here on the eve of the 65th LIC Junior National table tennis championships. For the arrival of a new team, the Centre of Excellence (CoE, Kolkata), promises to make the inter-State team event a hot affair.

With two of the top three players, including the top-seeded Soumyajit Sarkar in its ranks, the CoE becomes the big favourite for the boys team title on its debut here.

The CoE is a force to reckon in the girls section also. "Sure, it's going to be a very tough event. But we're quite confident too,'' said junior international S.Sangeetha, the captain of the Tamil Nadu girls team, the defending champion.

Thirty teams in the boys section and 28 in girls will figure in the team championships which begin tomorrow morning after the inauguration by the Kerala Tourism Minister K.V.Thomas.

Defending champion Petroleum Sports Promotion Board Academy (PSPB A, Ajmer), Maharashtra, Bengal and Tamil Nadu are the other leading teams in the fray in the boys section. And in the girls section, apart from Tamil Nadu and CoE, Maharashtra and Bengal are the other contenders for the crown.

The teams have been divided into eight groups with the top two teams from each group moving to the knock-out stage, the pre-quarterfinals.

The CoE's Soumyajit Sarkar and Maharashtra's Madhurika Patkar have been given the top billing in the boys and girls singles which begin on Saturday. The championship concludes on December 2.

The groupings (team championship):

Boys: Group A: PSPB A, Assam, Jharkhand. Group B: Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra `B', J&K. Group C: Bengal, Chattisgarh, Haryana, Tripura. Group D: Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Mizoram. Group E: Maharashtra `A', Rajasthan, Uttaranchal, Meghalaya. Group F: Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Orissa. Group G: Andhra Pradesh, CoE, Chandigarh, Pondicherry. Group H: Delhi, Kerala, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh.

Girls : Group A: Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Orissa. Group B: Bengal, Uttaranchal, Mizoram. Group C: Gujarat, Maharashtra `B', Jharkhand. Group D: Maharashtra `A', Madhya Pradesh, J&K. Group E: Delhi, Kerala, Goa, Himachal Pradesh. Group F: Karnataka, Haryana, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan. Group G: Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Chandigarh, Punjab. Group H: Andhra Pradesh, CoE, Bihar, Tripura.

The seedings (singles):

Boys: 1. Soumyajit Sarkar (CoE), 2. Aniket Koparkar (Mah), 3. Subhadip Das (CoE), 4. R.Abhishek (TN), 5. Devesh Karia (PSPB A), 6. Sameer Prabhu (PSPB A), 7. Zubin Kumar (PSPB A), 8. Omkar Torgalkar (Mah).

Girls: 1. Madhurika Patkar (Mah), 2. Anushree Saha (CoE), 3. S.Sangeetha (TN), 4. J.Swarna (TN), 5. Runa Roy (Beng), 6. Pallabi Kundu (Beng), 7. K.Shamini (TN), 8. Sanyukta Kundu (Beng).