New Delhi, July 20: A 14-member team, comprising seven boys and seven girls, will be participating in the 21st Asian Junior and Cadet Table Tennis Championships, to be held at the Malaysian capital from July 22 to July 26. The team, accompanied by three coaches, Sandeep Gupta, Vijay Singh and Ms Jyoti Shah, will leave for Kuala Lumpur later tonight.

 The team was selected by a panel, consisting of Arjuna Awardee Manjit Dua, Vijay Singh and Jyoti Shah, who were nominated by the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) and the Sports Authority of India (SAI). The committee conducted three-day selection trials at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here, with international and national rankings, besides the performance at the trials set as the selection criteria.

 During the trials the probables had to play one against another in two league matches and the best four in junior category, best three in Cadet category in both the boys’ and girls’ sections were selected to represent the country. The leagues matches formed the basis for assessing the current form of each of the probables.

 The Asian Junior and Cadet events are important for the paddlers as those finishes among the top five in junior categories will qualify for the World Junior Championships, to be held Vendee (France) from November 29 to December 6, later this year.

 “The team, particularly the girls in the junior section, has the real potential to qualify for the Vendee World Junior championships,” said Dharnraj Choudhary, secretary-general of the TTFI. “The girls had also qualified for the world juniors last year and performed really well,” he added.

 His views were endorsed by the coaches at the camp and trials. Senior coach Sandeep Gupta said the Indian girls had been very consistent in the last few years. “We have been watching them at the camp held prior to the trials and all the probables had done really well to grab a place in the team. The boys, too, have the opportunity provided they bring in consistency to the table,” said Gupta.

 The teams:

Junior Boys: Utkarsh Gupta, Sanish Ambekar, Lalrin Puia and Ravidira Kotiyan

Junior Girls: Sreeja Akula, Shruti Amrute, Maria Rony and Serah Jacob

Cadet Boys: Manav Thakkar, Parth Virmani and Sarthak Seth

Cadet Girls: Archana Kamath, Shrusthi Halengadi and Varul Jaiswal

Coaches: Sandeep Gupta, Vijay Singh and Jyoti Shah