Key Takeaways
- The Indian squad of 14 athletes will compete in Doha for the Asian Youth Table Tennis Championships.
- The event doubles as a qualifier for the 2023 ITTF World Youth Championships in Slovenia.
- Both U-19 and U-15 Indian players have a chance to secure spots in singles and doubles categories.
Kolkata: The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) has named a 14-member Indian squad, comprising seven girls and as many boys, to represent India in the 27th Asian Youth Table Tennis Championships, beginning in Doha from July 17 to July 22, 2023.
The selectors picked the Under-19 and Under-15 squads in the boys and girls sections based on their rankings, a TTFI statement said.
Three coaches and two support staff members will accompany the team members and leave for Qatar on the intervening night of July 15-16.
The Doha championships are a qualification event for the 2023 ITTF World Youth Championships at Nova Garcia, Slovenia, from November 23 to December 3.
Though the winners of the continental event in U-19 and U-15 Boys and Girls directly make the grade for the Slovenia championships, the Indian boys and girls can hope to grab one of the six spots each in the two sections, in singles out of the 20 spots, and doubles on combined world ranking points.
The Indian players had qualified for the Tunisia edition, which featured singles, doubles and team events, last year.
The Indian U-19 boys finished with a bronze medal in the last edition of the Asian Juniors in Laos to qualify for the Doha championships, and the girls topped at the regional Youth championships, a qualification event for Doha held at Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, in May.
The teams are:
Boys: Ankur Bhattacharjee, Divyan Srivastava, Jash Modi, P.B. Abhinand, Sarth Mishra, Punit Biswas and Priyanuj Bhattacharyya.
Girls: Yashaswini Ghorpade, Suhana Saini, Jennifer Varghese, Taneesha Kotecha, Avisha Karmakar, Sayanika Maji and Sayali Wani.
Coaches: Anindita Chakraborty, Jay Modak and R. Rajesh.
Support staff: Himanshu and Amandeep.
