Press Release: 19th Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships

NATIONAL CALENDAR

New Delhi, May 3: Departing from its earlier stance, the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) has put faith in the mixture of youth and experience in the men’s section to help India win medals at the 19th Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships, beginning at the Thyagraj Stadium here from May 5.

The responsibility of giving the hosts a head start in the six-day event will lie on the shoulders of Senior and top-world ranked Indian paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal, Anthony Amalral, Soumyajit Ghosh, Harmeet Desai and Sanil Shetty. But when it comes to picking the women’s team, the selectors have gone for the trusted and tried lot of K. Shamini, the national champion, Mouma Das, Madhurika Patkar and Neha Aggarwal.

The selectors feel the paddlers have been chosen on the basis of their current ranking and form and reposed their faith in this bunch of players to do the job during the championships. They also believe that the extensive preparations of the players both in Sweden (men) and China (women) will help the team put their best foot forward in the New Delhi championships.

“We have a good track record in Commonwealth championships and I don’t see any reason why our players can’t win medals here. In fact, our players should be aiming to better their best so far,” said TTFI president P.C. Chaturvedi.

Indian paddlers have won six gold, eight silver and 17 bronze medals in the Commonwealth championships so far, beginning from 1994 when Hyderabad hosted the second championships to be held in the country, though we hosted the first championships in 1982 in Mumbai. Delhi will play host for the second time after it conducted in 2001. Jaipur hosted the championships in 2007. Incidentally, this will be the fifth time that India is host the event.

But the real hunt for medals started in 2004 at Kuala Lumpur when India bagged double gold in the men’s team and men’s singles. In fact, this proved to be the base on which India’s future was built on as India became a force to reckon with in the Commonwealth championships and CWG 2010. Then the team relied on Sharath Kamal, Soumyadeep Roy and Subhjit Saha. While the men’s team still has the services of Sharath Kamal, the others will compete in individual events.

“We had taken a conscious decision to send the team members abroad so that they get the best of facilities and preparations. The feedback we got from the two coaches—Kamlesh Mehta and Bhawani Mukherjee—is very good and we hope our paddlers do really well in the championships,” said TTFI Secretary General Dhanraj Choudhary.

The championships will see 15 (men) and 14 (women) teams participating in it. The championships will be played on 12 Stag tables with the synthetic flooring provided by them. Eight practice tables have also been provided at the same venue to facilitate players’ practice. Nittaku white balls will be used during the championships.

The list of teams with players are attached with this.

Team Seedings

MEN

WOMEN

Neelakanta Iyer Ganeshan, international referee from India will be the referee for the championships and he will be assisted by Jonathan Whitakar from Scotland, Atul Dubey and Chandrakrian Thade, both from India, will be the deputies. More than 50 umpires will support the technical team.

The daily schedule of matches will be from Morning 0900 am to evening 0900 pm with a lunch break of 90mts.

The Inauguration of the Championship will be held at 17:00 hrs on 5^th May. The Team Championships finals is slated at 1400 Hrs on 8^th May, 2013. The finals of the Singles events will commence at 17:00 Hrs on 10^th May, followed by the Medal Ceremony.

The detailed performance of the Indian Players in Commonwealth championships from 1994 is attached with this. The Team Lists and Players lists are also attached

The main sponsors of the event are M/s ONGC, STAG International, YASAKA, Jain Irrigation Systems, Oil India and Nittakku

D R Choudhary

Secretary General