After proving her mettle in several junior tournaments at the national level, city paddler Karnam Spoorthy is all set to take wing to China to take part in two back-to-back tournaments representing the Indian table tennis team.
For the 13-year-old Class VIII student of V.P. Siddhartha Public School, this China trip would be the maiden tour as a paddler.
“She will take part in the Chengdu International Junior and Cadet Open from June 9 to 13 followed by Taiyuan International Junior and Cadet Open from June 16 to 20. The team would be leaving from New Delhi on June 7,” said S.M. Sultan, secretary, Andhra Pradesh Table Tennis Association.
Along with K. Spoorthy, another AP player – Nikhat Banu of Hyderabad would be taking part in the junior segment.
“For both Spoorthy and Nikhat, this China sojourn will be of great help as they will be playing against some of the best of emerging players of the world. Apart from assessing their strengths and weaknesses, the paddlers can improve their temperament,” said Mr. Sultan.
A product of Krishna District Table Tennis Association, K. Spoorthy took up table tennis at the age of eight and with the help of the KDTTA administrators and coaches, she went on to win several district and state tournaments.
Trained by former AP State champion K. Jayaram, young Spoorthy played a pivotal role in helping Andhra Pradesh win two silver medals in the National Cadet championships. “She helped APTTA win its first-ever gold medal by winning the sub-junior National team championship at Chennai in 2009. She also won the sub junior ranking tournament at Siliguri in 2009,” said Mr. Sultan.
Andhra Pradesh finished among the top eight teams in the National youth (u-21) championship in which the role of K. Spoorthy was laudable.
“Spoorthy took everyone by surprise in the Guwahati senior Nationals, when she defeated a top ranked Indian Railways player in the team championship. Though AP lost to Indian Railways 2-3, Spoorthy's performance stood out,” Mr. Sultan pointed out.
