Vadodara, December 11: Unlike the inaugural edition at Indore last year, the second edition of the 11Even Sports Inter-School National Championships, which are underway at the Sama Indoor Complex here, have a wide spread of national ranked players making their presence really felt.

This augurs well not because it gives a measure of popularity the event has gained just in two years, but because the significance attached to winning a national school championships endorsed by the Table Tennis Federation of India.

Take for instance, the two teams—Senior Girls and Junior Boys—which have as many as nine and eight players, respectively, with participants making it to the top 16 list of national ranking. What is more interesting is the participation of National champion Divyansh Srivastava of Uttar Pradesh and runner-up Sujan Bharadwaj of Karnataka. The two clashed for the coveted title at the just-concluded Cadet and Sub-Junior Nationals at Siliguri early this week. Two other boys from Karnataka—Srikanth Kashyap and Aakash K.J.—have pitched in with sterling performances to hog the limelight.

Another boy to hit the spotlight was southpaw Dev Shroff of Maharashtra. His quiver was full of strokes and endeared himself to the crowd with a bold display of them at Siliguri. But for the partisan crowd that rooted for North Bengal’s Mainik Das, little boy Dev would have finished at least with a bronze. He exited in the quarterfinals.

Similarly, the Cadet Girls champion Suhana Saini of Haryana is representing her school—Scholars Rosary, while Prithoki Chakraborti, a two-time zonal crown winner along with Oishiki Joardar, a national rank holder, from West Bengal have turned out for Kalyani Public School, Kolkata. Of course, all the three are competing in the junior girls section. In fact, this section has just these players while the rest are yet to make a mark. Nevertheless, the Junior Boys category has six other players of calibre—and national ranking—to make this event a great hit.

Coming to Senior Boys, Payas Jain and Yashansh Malik—thick friends off the playing arena and bitter rivals at the table—have a title each to their names from this year’s zonal events. They lead the pack of players from Delhi’s Bhatnagar International School. Both Payas and Yashansh finished with individual bronze medals but had helped Delhi win the Sub-Junior Boys title—a first for the state.

In comparison, Senior Girls may not have a title holder either from any of the five zonal events or from the Siliguri nationals. Yet, one cannot forget the way Vidhi Ameet Shah, representing Jamnabhai Narsee School from Mumbai, acquitted herself at Siliguri.

Though a regular on the national circuit, Vidhi proved to be a giant-killer and got noticed for the first time when she felled Anusha Kutumble of Madhya Pradesh, with four out of five zonal titles this season. In fact, Vidhi led 3-1 against eventual runner-up Vanshika Bhargava in the Sub-Junior Girls singles semifinals but wilted under pressure to end up with the bronze. But her performance came up for all-round praise as she was the underdog when the singles began.

Munmun Kundu of West Bengal is full of potential but she had often failed herself, unable to progress beyond the quarters in ranking events. However, she brought in all her experience and put it to best use when her state won the Sub-Junior Girls team crown during the nationals. She is representing Naihhti Adarsh Vidyalaya here.

Paddlers like Nikita Sarkar, Diksha Biswas from North Bengal have been a regular feature on the national circuit and have the wherewithal to go far. The two had ended up with the silver medals, going down to the Maharashtra pair of Dia Chitale and Swastika Ghosh, at the Siliguri nationals.

The following list gives a glimpse of paddlers that are among TTFI’s top-16 national ranking list.

Junior Boys: Divyansh Srivastava (UP), Sujan Bharadwaj (Kar), Nagesh Varenkar (Goa), Naman Arora (Har), Aakash KJ (Kar), Khelendra Jit (Raj), Rajveer Shah (Mah) and Srikanth Kashyap (Kar).

Senior Boys: Payas Jain and Yashansh (both Delhi), Abirup Paul Roy (NB), Gourang Sakreja (Har), Runak Majumdar (WB), Dev Shroff (Mah), Dhairya Parmar (Guj) and Wesley Do Rossario (Goa).

Junior Girls: Suhana Saini (Har), Prithoki Chakraborty and Oishiki Joardar (WB).

Senior Girls: Anjali Rohilla (Har), Kushi Jain (MP), Vidhi Shah and Mihika Rohira (both Mah), Nikita Sarkar and Diksha Biswas (both NB), V. Vaishanavi (TN), Munmun Kundu (WB).