Sharath Kamal, Neha Agarwal to play in Nagpur TT meet

Nagpur, Jul 27 (UNI) Sharath Kamal and Neha Agarwal, who will be representing India at the Beijing Olympics, are slated to play in the 38th All India Inter-Institutional Table Tennis Championship, to be held here since August 2.

The two will be part of the Petro Sports Control Board (PSCB) team at the championship. The tournament is being organised by Ordnance Factories Sports Control Board (OFSCB), under the aegis of the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI).

Speaking to reporters here today, A M Naik, Additional Director General, Ordnance Factories, who is also the OFSCB Vice President, said that PSCB would be among the 20 teams from all parts of the country that would participate in the five-day meet, which concludes on August 6.

The other teams include Railways Sports Control Board, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Dena Bank, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Union Bank of India, Air India, Life Insurance Corporation LIC), Air Force Sports Board, Food Corporation of India (FCI), State Bank of Indore and OFSCB, he said.

The championship would carry a total prize money of Rs 3 lakh, which included Rs 50,000 for the men's single's winner and Rs 40,000 for the women's singles winner, Mr Naik said. The winning teams would receive trophies and medals, he said.

Mr Naik said that over 300 top men and women TT players from various government and public sector undertakings, including renowned national and international players, were expected to participate in the tournament. Among those expected to play were Indebaar Chatterjee, Jayanta Chanda, Sourav Chakraborty, Soyan Paul, Subhojeet Saha, Poulami Ghatak and Mohua Das, the OFSCB Vice President said.

The team events would be held on league-cum-knockout basis, while the individual championship would be purely on knockout basis, Mr Naik, Member, Ordnance Factories Board (OFB), told reporters. The fixture was slated to be drawn by TTFI officials at New Delhi tomorrow, he added.

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