Hyderabad, December 8: The Chinese, who always love to bring variety to the table from time to time, have not given the tradition a goby. At team events of the Volkswagen 2012 World Junior Table Tennis Champions that get underway at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium here tomorrow, they have brought just two world-ranked paddlers in Lin Gaoyuan and Xu Chenhao, their No. 1 and 2 players here.

This might have pushed their seeding to No. 3 but, it will no will, give any relief or guarantee to the rest of the teams in fray, including No. 1 and 2 seeds Japan and France. Irrespective of their status, the Chinese are the teams that the others will want to beat. When that is the reality, how can hosts India think otherwise?

The Chinese, who are the title-holders in both the sections, will try and prove their supremacy yet again after dominating at the Manama worlds in Bahrain. Though the Asian powerhouse boys are seeded No 3, their arsenal have both the quality and quantity to nip in the bud any aspiration that other teams might nurture.

Fortunately, the Chinese girls have rightfully been seeded No. 1 and that should sound a warning bell to the No. 2 and 3 seeds, Japan and the South Korea. Indeed, their girls can be quite handful on occasions, but toppling China will be a pipedream. Under the circumstances, they can only hope to finish behind them in that order.

As for the hosts, the Indians girls do stand a slender chance with the experienced Manika Batra, Mallika Bhandarkar and T. Reeth Rishya—they were part of the Bahrain meet—leading the charge with the new girl on the blocks at this level, Suthirtha Mukherjee and Karnam Spoorthy. Realistically, they can make it to the last 16 stage but any progress beyond that will be a miracle.

Suthirtha and Spoorthy have been a part and parcel of the Indian team, competing in various global events. But the worlds here will be a different ballgame for the two. However, going by what national coach Bhawani Mukherjee says, “The girls are in a good frame of mind and know the tasks at hand too well.”

As for the boys, they have had more than a month-long training-cum-competition in Sweden at the Peter Karlsson Academy with coach Kamalesh Mehta in charge and are match-sharp. But what is needed is putting those valuable training sessions into practice and the coach believes the boys will not be wanting.

“All the boys have had fruitful sessions in Sweden and quite a good practice at the venue here. Abhishek, in particular, loves the venue and can be a hard nut to crack,” said Mehta, talking about the boys’ chances in the team event.

Though the southpaw, a flamboyant paddler who has an aggressive intent, leads the charge, the team will hope for players like Utkarsh Gupta and either Sabhay Virmani or Sudhanshu Grover, likely to be the third player, to pitch in for the hosts’ cause.

The boys and girls teams have also had an inspirational session with both Pullela Gopichand and Saina Nehwal last evening, spending close to one hour with the two icons. The coach-ward duo gave some pep talks and dinned into the ears of the paddlers the importance of focusing for the next eight days. “Cut out all distractions, including television and FB. Rest a lot and choose what you eat and don’t get disheartened if you lose a game or two. You will succeed,” were some of the good words that came from Gopichand.

Of the 30 teams entered here, Venezuela, Argentina and Singapore, are expected to arrive later tonight while all other participating nations have come and their players went through the practice sessions as per schedule. The championships will see over 350 participants, including the technical officials.

The worlds here will also see for the first time the blue-coloured floring and high-tech electronic scoreboard being used at all eight tables. The championships will be formally inaugurated by Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy in the evening.