Telangana paddlers Sreeja, Snehit in Commonwealth Games probables

New Delhi: Telangana paddlers Sreeja Akula and S Fidel R Snehit were on Monday named in the 16-member probables list for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, scheduled to be held in July-August. Sreeja, the reigning India No.1, won the senior national title in Shillong. Meanwhile, Snehit, who entered the fray as one of the favourites, suffered […]

New Delhi: Telangana paddlers Sreeja Akula and S Fidel R Snehit were on Monday named in the 16-member probables list for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, scheduled to be held in July-August. Sreeja, the reigning India No.1, won the senior national title in Shillong. Meanwhile, Snehit, who entered the fray as one of the favourites, suffered an ankle injury to be out in pre-quarterfinals. Both Sreeja and Snehit are being trained by Somnath Ghosh.

SD Mudgil, member of the Delhi High Court-appointed Committee of Administrators running the suspended Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI), told PTI that the final squad will be announced after completion of the training camp from May 23 to May 30.

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In a first, the training camp will be held at Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence in Bengaluru. “After their meetings on April 25, May 1 and May 2, the selectors shortlisted the probables for the upcoming Commonwealth Games. “The list was finalised after watching the players at the national championships in Shillong, detailed deliberations and discussions on past performance and medal prospects,” said Mudgil, who is a former athlete himself.

The CoA, headed by retired Justice Gital Mittal, had taken charge in February after the existing set of office-bearers was suspended by the Delhi High Court for running a “sorry state of affairs”.

“We want to take the game to every nook and corner of the country. Our focus is also on making the administration transparent. Justice Gita Mittal has been very proactive on that front.

“The performance of our athletes have also been encouraging of late. They give us a lot of hope going into the CWG and Asian Games (now postponed) and Olympics 2024,” said Mudgil.

Earlier this month, Indian players including star woman paddler Manika Batra made massive gains in the ITTF world rankings after the sport’s governing body approved changes to the points system. Manika attained a career-high singles ranking of 38 with a jump of 10 spots while G Sathiyan was the best placed Indian male at 34.

Veteran Sharath, who won his 10th national title in Shillong, also gained a place to be world no 37 while Sreeja Akula, who won her maiden national title, gained as many as 39 places to be ranked 68th. The Indian team also doesn’t have a foreign coach since the 2018 Asian Games.

Probables: Men: G sathyian, Sharath Kamal, Manush Shah, Snehit Fidel Rafeeque, Manav Thakkar, Harmeet Desai, Sanil Shetty, Anirban Ghosh;

Women: Manika Batra, Archana Kamath, Shreeja Akula, Reeth Rishya, Suthirtha Mukherjee, Ayhika Mukherjee, Diya Chitale, Swastika Ghosh.

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