Sharath to lead India at Tokyo world championships

New Delhi, Mar 11:
Ace paddler Sharath Kamal will lead the 10-member Indian contingent including five women in the World Table Tennis championships to be held in Tokyo from April 28 to May 5.
Members of the men’s team include Soumyajit Ghosh, Harmeet Desai, Anthony Amalraj and Sanil Shetty besides world no. 54 Sharath.
Delhi’s Manika Batra and Pooja Sahasrabudhe of Mumbai have made it to the senior national women’s squad for the first time. Other members of the squad are K Shamini, Ankita Das and Madhurika Patkar.
The selection committee, comprising foreign coach Peter Engel, national coaches Bhawani Mukherji, Kamlesh Mehta, Indu Puri and government observer Manjit Dua met here on Sunday, along with TTFI chairman P C Chaturvedi and convener Dhanraj Choudhary, to decide on the team.
The men’s team will aim to better the 27th place it achieved in the previous edition at Dortmund in 2012.
India, assured of a place in the second division of the championship, could well get a berth in the 24-nation Championship Division when the present world ranking is considered to confirm four countries at the time of the draw. Presently, India are ranked 21st in both sections.(PTI)