The Hindu : Sport / Table Tennis : Jitendra, Paulomi are top seeds

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 04, 2006
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Sport - Table Tennis

Jitendra, Paulomi are top seeds

Sports Reporter

VIJAYAWADA: Railway Sports Promotion Board's (RSPB) G. Jitendra and Petroleum Sports Promotion Board's (PSPB) Paulomi Ghatak are the top seeds in the men and women's categories respectively in the National ranking table tennis tournament, which begins at the DRRMC Indoor Stadium here on Wednesday.

However, the tournament, which witnessed over 500 entries, has lost its sheen due to the absence of Commonwealth Games champion A. Sharath Kamal, Soumyadeep Roy and Subhajit Saha, who are on National duty in Spain.

New category

As per the directives of Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI), a new age group — youth — will be introduced for the first time here in which under-21 players are eligible to participate.

International referee and chief referee for the tournament N.V. Raman of Karnataka said that the new category was introduced to bridge the gap between the senior and junior players.

"The going is tough for the juniors once they enter the senior category due to the presence of experienced players. This segment will provide them with a platform to fine-tune their skills and prepare them for future challenges."

Two players from each State have qualified in the youth category. "However, Andhra Pradesh is eligible to field four players in each section as it is the host," Raman added.

Events will be held in eight age groups for men, women, youth, junior and sub-junior boys and girls.

The seedings:

Men: 1. G. Jitendra (RSPB), 2. S. Raman (PSPB), 3. Sourav Chakraborty (RSPB), 4. A. Amal Raj (RSPB), 5. Omkar Toglekar (Mah), 6. Arunava Ganguly (PSPB), 7. Anal Kashyap (PSPB), 8. Zubin Kumar (PSPB).

Women: 1. Paulomi Ghatak (PSPB), 2. Mouma Das (PSPB), 3. Mousami Paul (PSPB), 4. Montu Ghosh (PSPB), 5. J. Swarna (TN), 6. Kasturi Chakraborty (PSPB), 7. K. Shamini (PSPB), 8. Nandita Saha (PSPB).

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