Durgapur, January 17: Being a superhero isn’t all about glitz and glamour, but setting standards. Manav Thakkar, who became the world No. 2 in Under-18 category just a couple of days ago, knows this because with great reputation comes great responsibility. The PSPB paddler’s achievement, the first ever by any Indian, is a laudable one, indeed. But to reach the position that he enjoys today, he has spared no effort. And now it’s up to him to stay there and rule. 

All eyes will be on the champion when the 11Sports 79th Junior and Youth National Table Tennis Championships that gets underway here at the Sidhu Kanu Indoor Stadium here from tomorrow. Manav’s thin shoulders will not only be carrying the entire burden of expectations of the two PSPB teams, including that of the Academy, but his brain also plotting to add the two singles and doubles gold for individual glory.

That’s the kind of shrewdness and commitment one can expect from him because he keeps raising the bar all the time. Manav will have to get into his act in the company of Jeet Chandra, Siddesh Pandey and Utkarsh Gupta in Youth section and with Anukram Jain, Chinmaya Somaiya and Sameer Pandey in Junior category. But the tasks are easier said than done with Delhi, Maharashtra and West Bengal teams breathing down their neck. Even otherwise, he has to keep in mind the possibility of some wear and tear when he has to play in all events.  

If Delhi have the mix of Parth Virmani, Yashansh Malik, Shreyans Goel and Payas Jain, Maharashtra have the combination of Dev Shroff, Deepit R. Patil, Shaurya Pednekar, A, Reagan, Sanish Ambekar, Ravindra Kotiyan, Shubham Ambre in the two sections. Gujarat, led by Manush Shah, Ishaan Hingorani, Chitrax Bhatt and Kaushal Bhatt or, for that matter, hosts West Bengal, spearheaded by Ronit Bhanja, Anirban Ghosh, Abhimanyu Mitra in Youth Boys could well be the teams that PSPB will have to be wary of.

In fact, in Junior Boys, there are teams like Telangana, led by SFR Snehit, and Uttar Pradesh with Sarthak Seth, Abhinav Belwal, Divyansh Srivastava and Gautam Dhruvansh, are no pushovers.

In Youth Girls, the title contest could be among the four teams with Reserve Bank of India ticking all boxes, thanks to new recruits. The strong team of Ayhika Mukherjee, Priyadarshini Das, Akuka Sreeja and Harshavardhini are the favourites but those fancying their chances include Tamil Nadu (Selenadeepthi Seilvakumar, Yashini Sivashankar, Abhinyaa Ramesh, Deepika Neelakandan), West Bengal (Prapti Sen, Kaushani Nath, Moumita Datta and Surbhi Patwari) and Kerala (Serah Jacob, Mariya Rony, Renuka Ashwani and Nandini Menon). Telangana, with the experienced Varuni Jaiswal and Naina in their ranks, could be the dark horse.

In Junior Girls, the battle royal looks to be between Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, thanks to their strong line-ups, but they have to watch out for teams like Delhi, Karnataka and Maharashtra who, on their day, can topple any.

But the real test for paddlers in each section will come when the singles events begin with a lot at stake, in terms of prize money as well as ranking points, for the individuals, especially those in the 18-21 age groups.

Competition manager N. Ganeshan said teams have been divided into eight groups for the round-robin league first stages with each group throwing up two qualifiers who will go onto play the main draw of the championships, to be played on a knockout basis. ‘’As for singles, the events will begin from Day 4 with nearly 800 players divided into groups of three and four for the first stages. One qualifier from each group will go on to play the knockout stage matches where they will be joined by eight top-ranked players, who will be given the seeding,’’ he said.

Matches will be played on 20 tables with Stag supplying all equipment—tables, balls and flooring. The six-day championships will be supervised by 55 technical officials, led by referee A.S. Kler. He will be assisted by deputy referees K.R. Manjunath and Sumit Ghosh with S. Sridhar as the FOP in charge.

West Bengal Table Tennis Association, who have been hosts to many a championship in the past, have done a wonderful job in a short span of time to tie-up with everything that is needed to conduct the nationals after they had to shift it from Kolkata, the originally allotted venue, to this steel city.  In their efforts, the Durgapur Municipal Corporation has lent its helping hand to make the nationals a memorable one.