Achanta Sharath Kamal will be leading the Indian squad at the 2011 World Championship
The 10 member Indian delegation for the 2011 World Table Tennis Championship at Rotterdam, Netherlands will be headed by Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal from May 8 to 15.
Kamal is the eight time national champion of India. He has represented the country on various international tournaments.
The squad will have Amalraj Anthony, Soumyadeep Roy, Abhishek Ravichandran and Subhajit Saha along with Achanta Sharath Kamal on board on the Men's team. The Women's team comprises of Shamini Kumaresan, Madhurika Patkar, Poloumi Ghatak, Mouma Das and Mamata
Prabhu.
The Secretary General of Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) Dhanraj Choudhary said, "The players are currently undergoing a training camp in China and they will leave for the World Championships tomorrow".
The Indian team is currently in China and is getting training at Zhengding National Training centre located in the Hebei Province, China. The main aim of the Indian players will be to qualify for the main rounds of the championship. The long term goal of
the team is to qualify for the 2012 Olympics. The team underwent an intensive 21 days training at China and will be leaving for Rotterdam tonight.
Choudhary further told the press, "Before that there is the ITTF Pro-tour Grand Finals, which is also a Test Event for the London Olympics, in November. The TTFI will send its players to participate in the Grand Finals.”
The TTFI has also released its table tennis schedule for 2011. The first prominent event on the calendar will be the Asian Junior Championships, which will be held at New Delhi in July. This year the calendar has been formulated according to the needs of
the table tennis players in the categories from Senior to Junior.
The World Table Tennis Championship is the most prestigious event of the table tennis world. It has been dominated by the Chinese players over the last decade. For the Indian players to qualify for the main rounds will be a very difficult task as there will
be players from Korea, Hong Kong and Japan. These countries are considered to be the best after China. There will also be strong competition coming from the European countries.
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