India to compete in World Cup Sepak Takraw

Chandigarh, Dec 27 (UNI) With a view to provide more exposure to the players, the Sepak Takraw Federation of India has decided to field men and women teams in the 22nd Kings Cup World Sepak Takraw Championship to be held in Bangkok in March next year.

Disclosing this here today after the annual general body meeting of the STFI held here, federation secretary general Salim Baig said the Indian players would attend coaching camps in preparation for their participating in the World Championship.

It was also decided that the state associations must send the detailed results of their state championships to the federation without which their teams would not be allowed to compete in the national meets. ''This step has been taken so that all affiliated units conduct their state championship annually,'' Baig said.

The federation secretary general further said that national championships have also allotted to different states. The senior nationals will be held at Bhillai in Chhattisgarh in October while the Junior National Sepak Takraw Championship has been allotted to Punjab which will be hosting it in Sangrur in November next year.

Gandhinagar will be the venue of the Sub-Junior National Championship and the competitons would be conducted in December.

The federation has also decided to organize regional coaching camps. Delhi will host the north zone camp. Cuttack (East), Hyderabad (South) and Gandhinagar (West) will conduct coaching camps of their respective zones. These camps will either be conducted during Diwali holidays or summer vacations. After that the Inter-Zonal Championship will be conducted.

Tournament director of the National Games to be held in Guwahati from February 9 to 16 next year L Upendra has submitted his report to the federation regarding the progress made for the Games. Baig said ''Upendra has reported that 95 per cent stadium for sepak takraw competitions has been completed.'' UNI XC DP DH HT1612