Indian paddlers to kickstart Games preparation from Muscat

 

 

New Delhi, February 23: A 12-member team of Indian paddlers will be embarking on a trip to Oman to compete in the WTT Contender, beginning February 27. The Muscat events will kickstart their preparations for the forthcoming Commonweal Games (Birmingham) and Asian Games (Hangzhou) in August-September.

 

The WTT Contender will be the first preparatory outing for the players in the new year. Incidentally, this will be the first squad to travel abroad after the court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), headed by retired Justice Gita Mittal, assumed charge last week. 

 

In the 12-member squad, G. Sathiyan (World No. 32), Harmeet Desai (No. 80), Anthony Amalraj (No. 99), Manika Batra (No. 49) and Archana Kamath (No. 99) are the Indians who figure in the top-100 in the world.

 

The other members include Manav Thakkar, Sanil Shetty, Manush Shah, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Diya Chitale, Akula Sreeja, Reeth Rishya and Ayhika Mukherjee. The team that leaves on Friday will be accompanied by coaches Arup Basak and Subhajit Saha.

 

The CoA also cleared 11 other players who will be either self-funded or undertake the trip under TOPS. They include promising youngsters Payas Jain, Yashaswini Ghorpade, Suhana Saini and Prapti Sen.

 

The qualifying events at Muscat will begin coming Sunday, while the main draw starts on March 2. The tournament concludes on March 5.

 

A smash-hit event

 

Meanwhile, five male players and six female players will compete in the inaugural Singapore Smash 2022 championships from March 7 to 20. A. Sharath Kamal, world No. 33 and who opted out of the Muscat Contender event, will be seen in action, his first after a recent knee procedure he underwent in Chennai. "I skipped the Muscat event to concentrate on Singapore Smash because of the solid world ranking points it offers,"he said, adding, "I am far more relaxed and fit for the event."

 

The players for Singapore Smash include G. Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai, Anthony Amalraj and Manav Thakkar among men, while Manika Batra, Archana Kamath, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Akula Sreeja, Ayhika Mukherjee and Madhurika Patkar, among women.

 

The event carries a total prize purse of USD 20 lakh, and even the qualifiers will gain from their participation as $1,84,000 is earmarked for them. The prize money correspondingly goes up if a player manages to enter the 64-player main draw in the singles (men and women) with $15 lakh allocated for disbursement. The singles winner stands to carry home $1 lakh, besides 2,000 world ranking points, the highest ever. 

 

The men and women doubles will have 24 pairs each and 16 entries in the mixed pair event.