Date:15/07/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/07/15/stories/2004071509752000.htm

Sport - Table Tennis

South Asian junior championship from tomorrow

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 14. After 15 years, the Asian junior table tennis championship will return to the Capital on July 19 with players from 21 countries forming the field at the Talkatora Indoor Stadium.

As a prelude to the six-day event, the South Asian junior championship will be held from July 16 to 18. The team finalists from this championship qualify for the Asian junior meet.

Addressing newspersons here on Wednesday, the Table Tennis Federation of India secretary M.C. Chowhan said the championship would see all the leading teams of the continent.

When Hyderabad hosted the event last year, India had taken the fifth spot in both sections.

Boys from Chinese Taipei, Korea, China and Japan and girls from China Korea, Japan and Chinese Taipei had finished in that order at Hyderabad to earn seeding into the latest edition. The finalists of five regional championships join the seeded nations to complete the field.

However, from the West Asia region, Jordon and Syria along with Turkmenistan from Middle Asia have not confirmed their participation in the girls' section. Similarly, the boys from Vietnam, qualifier from South East Asia and Turkmenistan from Middle Asia are not likely to make it. Effectively, that leaves 12 teams in the boys and 11 in the girls' team competitions. Players from other countries of the continent will take part in the open events — boys' singles, girls' singles, boys' doubles, girls' doubles, mixed doubles, cadet boys' singles and cadet girls' singles.

Mr. Chowhan expressed happiness over the arrival of the team from Afghanistan for the two championships. He also said the team from Pakistan was due to arrive on Thursday evening via Wagah Border.

As a special favour, Afghanistan will be allowed to field its team in the South Asian championship though it has only two playing members in the boys section. Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Nepal join the host in both team championships.

The Indian team for the two championships:

Boys: Arunava Ganguly, Soumaydeep Sarkar, R. Abhishek, Jubin Kumar, Subhadip Das, Aniket Koparkar and Devesh Karia (reserve).

Girls: J. Swarna, K. Shamini, Ashlesha Bodas, Madhurika Patkar, Sayantika Kundu and S. Sangeetha (reserve).

Cadet boys: Soumyajit Sarkar and Sanil Shetty.

Cadet girls: Salankara Mahalanobish and Divya Deshpande.

Chief coach: Manjit Dua. Coaches: Tapan Chandra, Praveen Ojha and Madhu Diwan.