India fired up for repeat act

India will look for a repeat of their last year’s success at the South Asian junior table tennis championships that gets under way at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium here on Saturday. In the last edition at Shillong, the Indians not only won the gold in the team and individual events of all the four sections — cadet boys, junior boys, cadet girls and junior girls — but also claimed four silvers in the singles events. For the likes of Abhishek Yadav and Utkarsh — defending champions in the junior boys and cadet boys singles categories, respectively — along with Sudhanshu Grover and Birdie Boro, this will be their second appearance in succession while Rohit Rajsekhar and Anirban Ghosh will be the new boys. In the girls’ section, Suthirtha Mukherjee and Reeth Rishya are the experienced faces, while Manika Batra, who was pulled out last year, Ayhika Mukerjee, R. Harshavardhani and Sagarika Mukherjee will make their maiden appearances. Suthirtha, ranked 35th in the world, has not only beaten Manika, ranked 27th, at the Slovak Open recently, but the West Bengal girl went on to annex the Polish title in May. Suthirtha is considered a favourite while among the boys Abhishek and Utkarsh have a lot at stake to defend their crowns. With six teams in the fray, the cadet boys and junior boys teams will play in two stages while the girls in both sections will play in a league format. In the cadet boys section, Group A consist of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, while Group B have Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Nepal. In the junior boys section, India, Pakistan and Bhutan have been put together in Group A, while Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh form Group B.