New Delhi: An Olympic medal may still be a long shot for an Indian table tennis player, but all the four Rio Games qualifiers—Soumyajit Ghosh, Achanta Sharath Kamal, Mouma Das and Manika Batra—have shown considerable improvement in their world rankings.
According to the latest ITTF rankings, released on Monday, Ghosh has jumped four places to be at No. 61 from No. 65 while Sharath Kamal, who was 73 last month, now occupies slot No. 69.
Manika Batra, who was occupying the No. 128 position last month, has moved 13 places up the ladder to be at 115—the best thus far for the reigning National champion.
All the three players who have been preparing themselves for the Rio Games have been competing in some pro-tour events and their continuous labour in competitions abroad has yielded results—in terms of good, stiff competition as well as earning them valuable ranking points.
However, Mouma Das, who had been training with her personal coach at Kolkata, will be participating in her first competition abroad—at the Japan Open, beginning in Tokyo from June 15.
Yet, Mouma has managed to occupy No. 145 in the world ranking, thus gaining 13 places. She was placed at No. 158, her previous best.
Among men, Harmeet has gained two places to be at 116 from No. 118.
Raising graphs of Archana, Ananth
From out of nowhere, both Ananth Devarajan and Manav Thakkar have hit the world chart to do India proud as they occupy slots at No. 24 and No. 54, respectively. Incidentally, this is the first time that the two Indian boys have entered world ranking bracket.
Among junior girls, Archana Girish Kamath has broken into the top 25 bracket, with her perseverance and hard work. Archana’s consistent good performances abroad have brought the desired results, including keeping her in the hot seat for gaining better rankings in the future, on her maiden appearance in the U-18 category abroad.
Archana, who began with a bronze medal at the Spanish Junior event in the first week of May, added two gold medals (team and singles) to her kitty by the end of the month at Prague to make a mark on her world tour events.
Earlier last month, she was bestowed with the Ekalavya, Karnataka’s highest sports award.
