The table tennis fraternity will commemorate the National Sports Day by kickstarting the second 11Even Sports inter-school table tennis State championships across 27 States in India. The intra-State phase, a three-day event that begins on August 29, will be played simultaneously across all the participating States.
According to Kamlesh Mehta, Director of 11even Sports, 29 of the 33 State associations have expressed interest in hosting the tournament.
“Only Nagaland, Arunachal, Sikkim and Tripura won’t be able to stage it. And Manipur and Kerala have requested us to allow them to hold the State tournament later in September, still it’s heartening to see the tournaments generating an overwhelming response,” Mehta, the eight-times national champion, said during a media interaction on Thursday.
During its inaugural season in 2015, the tournament, which is held under the auspices of TTFI and the respective State associations, was held in 19 states, followed by the national championship of all the winners in Indore. Madhya Pradesh is likely to stage the national knockouts again this year, from December 9 to 11.
Mehta informed the Maharashtra leg, to be played at Khar Gymkhana with Robomate+ as title sponsor and supported by Square Off Sports, has attracted entries from more than 100 schools from at least six districts.
To avoid the age-funding conflict two categories – junior and senior – for boys and girls each have been devised according to their grade in school. “Honestly, we don’t have the mechanism to verify age of all the participating players, so those from grades 5 to 7 participate in junior while players from grades 8 to 10 will compete in the senior category,” Mehta said.
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