NAGPUR, July 5, 2023
FRESH with her medal winning performances in the recently concluded tournaments at Peru and Brazil, Nagpur’s international paddler Jennifer Varghese would be looking to continue her excellent show in the 27th Asian Youth Table Tennis Championships, which will be held in Doha from July 17 to 22.
Table Tennis Federation of India announced a 14-member squad for the continental championship which includes seven boys and as many girls.
Jennifer was selected in the Indian team in May itself when she won all the gold medals on offer in the South Asian Youth Table Tennis Championship held in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh.
Jennifer started the season with a bang with a gold medal at Under-17 nationals in Hyderabad. On her way to title the ever-improving 15-year-old Jennifer had stunned second seed and seasoned Sutirtha Mukherjee.
Jennifer had to settle for silver medals at the World Table Tennis Star Youth Contender at Lima Peru in June.
But taking that disappointment in stride, Jennifer upped her game by a few notches and claimed twin golds in the next meet held in Brazil.
She won the U-15 singles and mixed doubles gold medal to bounce back on golden track.
“The twin gold medal wins at Brazil has given me a lot of confidence and I will use all my experience at Doha,” Jennifer told ‘The Hitavada’.
“The competition will be totally of a different level at the Asian meet but I will try to give my best and win medals for the country,” Jennifer, who trains under R Rajesh at ITTC Centre in Chennai, confidently said.
Jennifer will be looking to earn some valuable points and get selected for the ITTF World Youth Championships which will be held at Nova Garcia, Slovenia in from November.
Though the winners of the continental event in U-19 and U-15 boys and girls directly make the grade for the Slovenia Championships, the Indian boys and girls can hope to grab one of the six spots each in the two sections, in singles out of the 20 spots and doubles on combined world ranking points. Jennifer, who is in city for a break, will leave for Chennai on July 8.
The team will leave for Qatar on the intervening night of July 15-16.
THE TEAMS
Girls: Jennifer Varghese, Yashaswini Ghorpade, Suhana Saini, Taneesha Kotecha, Avisha Karmakar, Sayanika Maji and Sayali Wani. Coaches: Anindita Chakraborty, Jay Modak and R Rajesh.
Boys: Ankur Bhattacharjee, Divyan Srivastava, Jash Modi, PB Abhinand, Sarth Mishra, Punit Biswas and Priyanuj Bhattacharyya.
