Sport - Table Tennis   

Petroleum looks set for another sweep

By Rakesh Rao

MANESAR (Haryana) Dec. 12. Another ruthless dominance of the Petroleum players is expected when the Hero Honda 65th National and inter-State table tennis championship opens on Saturday, at the sprawling Manesar Club, just off the busy Delhi-Jaipur Highway.

When a team has the services of the best players of the country, its rivals can at best hope to finish second best. Railways has been doing just that for a few years. This time, too, it's going to be no different.

However, in September, when the Petroleum and Railways met in the women's final of the inter-Institutional championship, the outcome was a sensational one. Railways' Anindita Chakravarthy, the only leading player in the fray not to win the National title, had brought down Poulomi Ghatak and Mouma Das. In between, Vishakha Vijay had pulled off the crucial third singles to set up a rare victory for Railways over Petroleum.

This time, a repeat victory for Railways looks unlikely, as two members of that victorious team— Vishakha and Mousmi Paul — have joined the Petroleum brigade.

In the individual sections, the form displayed by A. Sharath Kamal and Poulomi Ghatak this season makes them the firm favourites. But then, defending champions S. Raman and N.R. Indu are not going to let it slip away without a fight.

The groups: Men: Group `A': Petroleum Sports Promotion Board, Goa and Pondicherry. Group `B': Railway Sports Promotion Board, Rajasthan and Jammu & Kashmir. Group `C': Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Sikkim. Group `D': Bengal, Maharashtra `B', Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Group `E': Maharashtra `A', Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Uttranchal. Group `F': Assam, Delhi, Chandigarh and Jharkhand. Group `G': Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and Tripura. Group `H': Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala and Meghalaya.

Women: Group `A': Petroleum Sports Promotion Board, Haryana and Jammu & Kashmir. Group `B': Railway Sports Promotion Board, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. Group `C': Tamil Nadu, Chandigarh and Pondicherry. Group `D': Assam, Kerala and Bihar. Group `E': Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Group `F': Delhi, Uttaranchal, Orissa and Goa. Group `G': Maharashtra `B', Gujarat, Rajasthan and Jharkhand. Group `H': Bengal, Punjab, Chattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh.

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