National TT camp gets underway; Sharath Kamal, Anusha to join on Thursday

With focus firmly on qualifying for subsequent 12 months’s Tokyo Olympics, the Indian desk tennis gamers on Wednesday resumed their coaching after virtually seven months on the nationwide camp, which obtained underway at Sonepat with 9 paddlers.

A complete of 11 gamers and three coaches have given their consent for the 42-day-long camp which can conclude on December 9.

Four-time Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Achanta Sharath Kamal and Anusha Kutumbale will probably be becoming a member of the camp on Thursday.

Senior gamers G Sathiyan and Harmeet Desai, who had left early this month for Europe to coach and take part within the leagues there, are anticipated to affix as soon as they return.

It is the primary nationwide camp for the game because the imposition of the nationwide lockdown in March to include the COVID-19 outbreak. “It’s a good beginning and I am sure everybody at the camp will love to get on with good training and practice with the partners,” world no. 31 Sharath Kamal was quoted as saying in a launch. “For us, this would be the best way to go about it and prepare for the Olympic qualifiers with complete focus. Whatever little we did during the lockdown at home was not adequate and lacked the intensity and concentration.

“Now it is a serious business. The camp will allow us to assess our fitness and strike a rhythm which you don’t get when you practice alone,” he added.

At the camp venue, all precautions have been factored in as per the Standard Operating Procedure laid down by the Sports ministry and Sports Authority of India.

“We have been making sustained efforts and were constantly in touch with SAI and the players. Now that it is happening, the camp will help them come into good shape, kind of match-ready fitness, before the Games qualifications next year,” TTFI secretary common M P Singh stated.

The campers: Men: A. Sharath Kamal, Manav Thakkar, Manush Shah, Sudhanshu Grover and Jubin Kumar.

Women: Sutirtha Mukherjee, Archana Kamath, Anusha Kutumbale, Takeme Sarkar, Kaushani Nath and Diya Chitale.

Coaches: Arup Basak, Sunil Babras and Sachin Shetty.

Masseur: Amarjit Singh.