AJMER: Armed with the best in Indian table tennis, Petroleum is set complete the annual ritual of retaining the men's and women's team titles in the National and inter-state championship beginning here on Wednesday.

Since the 2000 edition hosted by Lucknow, Petroleum has claimed a double six times. The only time it missed was in 2002 when its men, unlike the ladies, fell in the final in New Delhi. Given the opposition's lack of strength this time, Petroleum can sleepwalk its way to the team honours.

In the men's section, Petroleum's trio of A. Sharath Kamal, Subhajit Saha and Soumyadeep Roy — all National champions at least once — makes sure that it is futile to look for a different winner.

Sharath, who broke into the top-100 bracket of the world rankings to be 86th as on March 1, will be keen to use the matches of the team championship to test his preparations in his bid to win back the singles titles won in Manesar in 2004.

Saha, the defending singles champion who won the National Games title last month, has been in good form. Roy, with his best firmly behind him, will still to motivated to do well at a venue where his skills were honed by the Chinese coach Yin Wie from 1995.

Railways's chances

Railways, once a threat to Petroleum, now seems content to reach the final.

National Games runner-up Anirban Nandi, A. Amal Raj, Sourav Chakravorty and Soumyajit Sarkar are aware of their limitations and know how far they can take Railways.

Women paddlers

Among the ladies, Petroleum's trio of Poulomi Ghatak, K. Shamini and Mouma Das should leave other contenders for the lesser honours.

Runner-up North Bengal looks capable of repeating its performance with Nandita Saha and former National champion Kasturi Chakraborty in its ranks.

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