Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

New place for paddlers to practise

Krishna District Table Tennis Association officials installing the robot (ball spraying machine) at the Dandamudi Ragagopala Rao Municipal Corporation indoor stadium in Vijayawada.

VIJAYAWADA: For any sportsperson playing at the national level, the most important requirement is a proper place to practise. Crammed halls or substandard playfields often dissuade them from giving their hundred per cent.

Thanks to the initiative of Municipal Commissioner P.S. Pradyumna, the table tennis players of the city, who represented Andhra Pradesh in the national tournaments, will no longer play in the TT hall beneath the Indira Gandhi Municipal Stadium gallery. They can now play in one of the four spacious badminton courts in Dandamudi Rajagopala Rao indoor stadium.

“Krishna district has produced many national players such as K. Spoorthi, Mrudula, Sailu, Sai Praneeth, Saira Banu, Ch. Praneetha, Vivek Vardhan and Sai Praneeth, who bagged medals for AP. The Satyam Memorial TT hall in IGMC Stadium has little place for the players to move around and play. When we approached the Municipal Commissioner, he promptly gave us permission to play,” said Krishna District Table Tennis Association secretary B. Uday Kumar.

The spacious court in DRRMC indoor stadium has come as a boon to the paddlers, as they have enough room to unleash their strokes sans any inhibition. “All the national and state events are played on similar surface all over the country.

The facility is better than the one in LB Stadium at Hyderabad. The boys and girls are totally involved in honing their strokes and skills under the watchful eyes of coaches K. Jayaram, Mallikharjun, Srinivas and Uday Kumar,” said Andhra Pradesh Table Tennis Association secretary S.M. Sultan.

The KDTTA has spent Rs. 30,000 for nets to cover the four TT tables to prevent the balls from entering in to the badminton courts. It has also installed a ball-spraying machine to enable the players to practise without a partner.

V.P. Siddhartha Public School student K. Spoorthi, who won medals for AP in the National cadet segment, will be leaving for China for a month-long coaching camp in which players from China, Japan and Korea would take part. “This Asian camp will be of great help to Spoorthi, as she will be playing and practising with best paddlers from Asia,” said Mr. Sultan.

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