Ranchi, January 24: The enthusiasm for any Senior National event never diminishes, whatever be the impediment.  The distance that a majority of teams will have to travel to the reach venue of the 79th edition of the 11Even Sports Senior Nationals—the Mega Sports Complex at Khelgaon—beginning here fromtomorrow may not be ideal in any situation. However, the playing conditions available here should make the teams forget the troubles they have to face.

Top-ranked teams, including title-holders PSPB in men and their women, who ended up with bronze medal at Manesar, are lucky to have been provided accommodation at a nearby hotel while the lesser teams have to bear the brunt of travelling quite some distance. But the organizers have taken a good care of transporting them back and forth and this should come as a big relief. The pitiful lot, however, is the technical officials, who will have to travel 20-odd kilometres one way each day!

G. Sathiyan, the top-ranked Indian in the world at 49, may not be new poster boy of Indian table tennis yet, but he will be closely followed by his connoisseurs. Nevertheless, the real poster boy A. Sharath Kamal, will be watched with awe as always. PSPB has not repeated the mistake of omitting him from team event as they did last year. The duo, along with Anthony Amalraj, Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar, the world No. 2 in Under-18 Boys, form a formidable mix of youth and experience.

Yet their women squad is no longer enjoying the same aura. The only youngster in the team is Manika Batra while the others like Pooja Sahasrabudhe, Madhurika Patkar, the reining national champion, and Mouma Das are carrying on because of their experience. But that alone cannot get yield medals as the team almost realized to their chagrin last year. Squads like West Bengal, the title holders, Maharashtra are too strong and with RBI joining the ranks, PSPB paddles have a tough job at hand.

As for Haryana, last year’s runners-up in men section, Soumyajit Ghosh would be expected to share most burden with adequate support coming from Jubin Kumar, Sarthak Gandhi, Sourav Saha and Mohit Verma. But Gujarat is no pushover, thanks a good mix of youth and experience in Devesh Karia, Jignesh Jaiswal, the old warhorse, Jalay Mehta, Manush Shah and Ishaan Hingorani

West Bengal, led by Arjun Ghosh, Sougata Sarkar, Anirban Ghosh, Rojit Bhanja and Jeet Chandra, the Junior national champion, is quite handful and, on their day, can spell doom for any famed squad. They need to jell together as a team.

After the first three days of team action, the intensity of competition will go a few notches high when individuals play for glory and money—a total prize purse of Rs. 9.58 lakh awaits to be disbursed. More than the money, the ranking points will help them to the extent that their names being discussed by the selection committee or event get its nod as teams for the Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast in April and for the Indonesia Asiad later this year will be finalized. This incentive alone is plenty for them to prove themselves before it is too late.

There are 33 and 32 teams in men and women, respectively, participating to make the event a momentous one. They have been divided into eight groups of four and five in the men’s draw while it’s four teams each in women’s affair.

For team events, matches will be played on 16 tables with Stag International providing synthetic flooring and tables and balls. However, a large number of entries in individual events have forced the competition department to go for 20 tables in order to complete singles and three doubles in the remaining days.

According to competition manager N. Ganeshan, Mangesh Mopker, who recently cleared the ITTF referees’ exam, has been named referee for the championships. He will have the guidance and assistance from veterans like A.S. Kler, C.L. Thade, and Atoor Satheese. Besides, there will be a handful of Blue Badge, international and national umpires, numbering 60, to support and supervise matches that start at 10 a.m.