Team Herald
TALEIGAO: Goa Table Tennis Association (GTTA) will organise the 79th Cadet & Sub-Junior National & Inter-State Table Tennis Championships in collaboration with the Sports Authority of Goa. The championship powered by 11Sports will be held from December 14 to 19, at Dr S P Mukherjee Indoor Stadium, Taleigao. The championship will be held under the aegis of Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI).
In the golden jubilee year celebration, GTTA has last week organised a Veterans International championship. GTTA has been concentrating in giving maximum exposure to younger players and has recently organised a month-long coaching camp only for the Cadets, Sub-Junior and Junior players under the guidance of Korean coaches and has in the recent past organised the World Cadets and Junior championships twice as also the Road to Nanjing championship allotted to each continent by the International Table Tennis Federation.
The Nationals will witness in all 120 teams in the Cadets and Sub-Junior Boys and Girls categories from across India.
Shatesh Mapsekar who is ranked 2nd in the Cadets individual and who has reached 4 out of 5 finals at the National Ranking championships held in the 5 zones, will spearhead Goa’s challenge at the championship in the Cadet Boys category. He will be assisted by Aarav Aiyer, Aaron Colaco and Advait Mudras.
In the Sub-Junior Boys category which will be U-15 category, the duo of Shantesh Mapsekar and Nagesh Verenkar who are hardly 11 and 12 years will have an uphill task to challenge the might of higher ranked and older players. The Goan girls will have to bring the best out of themselves to compete in both the categories.
The total number of entries in the Cadets boys individuals is 194, Cadet girls 167, Sub-Junior boys 222 and Sub-Junior girls 207.
In the Cadets boys category, Suresh Raj Priyesh from Tamil Nadu who has won all the 5 National Ranking Championships has been top seeded followed by Shantesh Mapsekar from Goa, Ankur Bhatarcharya from West Bengal and Arnav Aggarwal from P.S.P.B.A.
In the Cadets girls category, the top seed is Suhana Saini from Haryana, followed by Pritha Vartikar (Maharashtra A), Nehal Venkatasamy (Tamil Nadu) and Arya Songadkar (Maharashtra A).
Similarly in Sub-Junior boys, top seed is Deepit Rajesh Patil (Maharashtra A), followed by Payas Jain (Delhi), Jeho Himnakulhpuingheta (PSPB A) and Dev Shroff Maharashtra A.
Gogoi Trisha (Assam), Kundu Munmun (West Bengal), Mani Nithyashree (TN) and Rohira Mihika (Maharashtra A) are the top 4 seeds in the Sub Junior girls category.
The total prize money including trophies and medals is Rs 5 lakhs. The championship budget is Rs 75 lakhs. Bulbul, designed by Goa’s creative artist Francisco Martins, will be the championship mascot.
