By a quirk of fate, the dates of the West Zone National-ranking table tennis championship, which began in Nagpur on Wednesday, and the Kerala State championship are clashing.
This has forced two of Kerala's brightest young girls, Alappuzha's Maria Rony and Seraha Jacob, to pull out of the State table tennis championship which begins at the Jerusalem Parish Hall here on Thursday.
With national-ranking points and possible Indian team berths up for grabs, the two find Nagpur's pastures greener.
Maria, just 13, is the most promising player Kerala has seen in more than a decade and her absence has taken a lot of glamour from the State championship. She is currently the State's top-ranked player in the women's junior and youth sections. Seraha too has given Maria a strong challenge in almost all their encounters.
KTTA'S version
“The State championship was supposed to be held a few weeks ago but since it clashed with the local elections then, we were forced to postpone it,” explained S.A.S. Navaz, the Secretary of the Kerala State Table Tennis Association, on Wednesday evening. “The hall in Thiruvalla was not free after that, so we could have it only now.”
In Maria's absence, Seraha's elder sister Shika Jacob, has been promoted as the top seed in the women's and youth girls' sections while Ernakulam's Gayathri Girish is the first seed in the junior division.
Alappuzha's Rahul Binu Mathew has been given the top billing in the men's and junior boys' sections while Thiruvananthapuram's M. Harikrishnan is the No. 1 youth boys player here.
The championship will be held in three categories — senior, junior and youth — in team and individual events and more than 200 players will be seen in action. Kerala Sports Minister M. Vijayakumar will inaugurate the championship on Thursday evening.
