New Delhi, June 3: Ganeshan Neelakanta Iyer, the only assigned competition manager of ITTF in India, was nominated as a member of the Umpires and Referees Committee (URC). He is the first Indian to make it to the URC.

This was the better news coming from Dusseldorf on a day when India’s engagement at the World Championships got over. Following the AGM of the world table tennis body early this week, the Board of Directors of various committees met on the sidelines of the ongoing World Championships and handpicked the best in business for the job.

Ganeshan’s term as URC member is for a period of two years and is extendable. In another first, Ganeshan has also been recommended as the Technical Commissioner from the Asian Continent to ITTF and his term will be for a period of four years.

Ganeshan, who has been a part and parcel of the table tennis scene in the Asian region and other championships abroad as competition manager, will now be in the thick and thin of working at the URC, the technical arm of ITTF which looks after all aspects of technical issues involving the sport. Ganeshan is also the chairman of the South Asian Federation technical committee and a member of the Technical Committee of the Commonwealth Table Tennis Federation.

Ganeshan, who supervised the Asian Championships at Wuxi (China) as competition manager last month, was a deputy referee in the Kuala Lumpur World Championships 2016. He has also officiated in various International competitions as Competition Manger and Referee, including the Commonwealth Games at Glasgow in 2014.