Guwahati: With the SAF Games just a little over three months away and Assam being one of the hosts, there cannot a better opportunity than testing an old venue built for the National Games in 2007. The Deshbakta Tarunram Phukan Indoor Stadium, which will be venue for both basketball and wrestling during the February Games, will be put to test during the next six days when the National Ranking (East Zone) Table Tennis Championships, the fifth and last zonal event this year, gets underway from Sunday.
The zonal event here has its own importance as is evident from the number of entries, more than 600, across all sections—Cadet Boys, Cadet Girls, Sub-Junior Boys, Sub-Junior Girls, Youth Boys and Youth Girls, Men and Women—as it is immediately followed by the Junior and Youth Nationals at Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh.
Each and every player that participates at the East Zone will want to log the maximum points so as to remain in selection reckoning as the state teams are picked on the basis of ranking points the players have accumulated from five zonal championships.
In fact, all players are aware of the selection nitty-gritty and it will be their endeavour to maximize the chances that had come their way. Keeping that in mind, all participants are expected to put their best foot forward and upstage their teammates to get an opening for the nationals at Dharamsala and the subsequent ones at Kolkata next month (Cadet and Sub-Junior) and the senior championships at Hyderabad in January.
Since Dharamsala is happening immediately after Guwahati, the Table Tennis Federation of India has slightly altered the schedule and starting with the men, women and Youth Boys and Youth Girls singles—pushing the Junior singles to the last so that the boys and girls can travel straight to Dharamsala without touching their base.
Both North Zone winner and quarterfinalist Sanil Shetty will not be present here owing their Swedish League engagements while all other top players will be on view here in the men’s section. K. Shamini, who missed North Zone, returns to fray along with her husband Nitin Thiruvengadam while the women players presence will be even stronger since the Indian team for the Commonwealth Championships at Surat will be chosen after the East Zone.
The absence of Ghosh should help Anthony Amalraj, who missed a hat-trick of men’s title at New Delhi, to win the third title this season while his rivals will be following his early fortunes in the championships. Harmeet Desai, particularly, would want to re-launch himself at the East Zone, having fared poorly since South Zone at Chennai where he finished runner-up. But then there are players like G. Sathiyan, and Devesh Karia who will try to push their opponents to the corner. Similarly, Mouma Das, Pooja Sahasrabudhe, Madhurika Patkar, Ankita Das and Divya Deshpande, all women’s title contenders, will try to stop Manika Batra’s strides. She claimed a doubles at New Delhi.
The qualifying group events in men’s and women’s sections along with Youth Boys and Girls begin tomorrow and followed by the main draw the next day, said Competition Manager Ganeshan Neelakanta Iyer. He also said that Donic equipment, including tables, flooring and plastic balls will be used during the championships. A.S. Kler has been nominated as the chief referee for the event while Sumit Ghosh will be his deputy. They will be supported by 30 technical officials, including Blue Badge, international and national umpires.
