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The Table Tennis Federation of India has reportedly decided to bid for the 2024 edition of the biennial World Team Championships.
The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) is the governing body for table tennis in India. Established in 1926, it is a founding member of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). TTFI’s membership includes 32 state units and 37 institutions.
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MP Singh, the current TTFI secretary was in Hungary recently for the World Championships that ended on Sunday. He claimed that it is now time for India to host a high-profile event. India hosted their last World Championships three decades back in 1987.
“We will be bidding for the 2024 edition in which 32 teams will take part,” Singh said in an interview to PTI.
As per World Championships rules, team championships are held on even years and
individual championships on odd years. In 2012, India hosted a big ITTF event, the World Junior Championships in Hyderabad.
Singh further confirmed that TTFI has selected three names to recommend sports ministry for the Arjuna award. The three names are Harmeet Desai, Sanil Shetty, and Madhurika Patkar.
This year is the second time when Harmeet’s name is recommended. He was recommended last year as well but the selection panel chose Manika Batra and G Sathiyan for the honour in respect to their path-breaking displays in the Commonwealth and Asian Games.
Indian paddlers did not have a successful outing in the recently concluded World Table Tennis Champions in Hungary.
However, G Sathiyan became the first Indian to break into the top-25 of the latest world ranking list released by International Table Tennis Federation. He rose four spots in the ITTF rankings to the 24th spot.
This was a result of Sathiyan’s impressive 6th place finish in the Asia Cup in Yokohama earlier this month. Moreover, he was the only Indian to make it to the round 32 in the World Table Tennis Championships, Hungary.
Best point of the match against Cristian Pletea from Romania in the Round of 64 at the World TT Championships 2019 (Budapest) !!#ITTFWorlds2019 #Tabletennis #teamindia??@ittfworld @baselineventure @GoSportsVoices @UltTableTennis @RamanS22905417 @ttfitweet @Media_SAI pic.twitter.com/WEzZ9hw1Yk
— Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (@sathiyantt) April 25, 2019
