Table tennis will be the first game to kick off at the 36th National Games at the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Indoor Stadium in Surat on Tuesday with the official inauguration of the Games happening in Ahmedabad on the 27th of September.
The dates had to be preponed as the World table tennis championships starts off in Chengdu (China) on September 30 and the Indian paddlers who are part of the National team fly off on the 25th & 26th September.
Gujarat men and Maharashtra women will be the favourites to sweep of the titles in the championships.
The national team has had a 10-day camp at the Tapti Valley International School here. “We are excited to represent Gujarat in our home state, and this is the first time we are all (referring to Manush & Manav) playing together in the Games. We have to play well to justify our top seeding,” said Harmeet, who was part of the Indian team that won a gold in the recently held Commonwealth Games in Birmingham
The host has Harmeet Desai, Manush Shah and Manav Thakkar, who are ranked No. 3, 4 & 5 in the country at the domestic level and will be expected to bag the gold.
Moreover, India’s top stars including A. Sharath Kamal, G. Sathiyan and Manika Batra are expected to arrive in the city in a day or two to compete in the individual events. All of them also took part in the Shillong National Championships.
