Junior paddlers waiting to up the South Asian ante

Over the years, the Indian team members, in both the Junior and Cadet sections, have been going through the rituals of grabbing all the 10 gold medals on offer—team championship titles, singles and the two doubles events in the Junior sections—without much ado. And there will be no difference this time as the hosts, with strong teams, are bound to do leaving the crumbs for other competitors.

The South Asian championships is one of the most important events in the ATTU calendar as the winners and the runners-up will qualify for the Asian Junior Championships to be held at Kuala Lumpur in July.

The other teams that are participating in the three-day championships include Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Maldives besides the hosts India.

Bangladesh, however, could not make it despite having sent their entries owing to a visa problem.

“They had failed to complete the online visa application formalities with the Indian High Commission at Dhaka,” said TTFI secretary-general Dhanraj Choundary.

“Since the event (team championships) is getting underway from tomorrow, it is highly doubtful that the team will come,” added Choudhary.

With just five teams in fray, the team championships will be conducted on a round-robin league format on the second day when the individual matches too begin.

The flooring, tables and plastic balls will be supplied by Stag for the championships with Ganeshan Neelakanta Iyer as the competition manager. The chief referee for the event will be Atul Dubey and he will be assisted by A.S. Kler and a dozen Indian and foreign officials.

The team event starts from 10 am.