Sreeja gears up for the big league

City paddler Akula Sreeja, fresh from her golden triple in the recent South Asian table tennis championship, has been picked by the Asian Table Tennis Union for three events to be held abroad under the ‘Pathways to Excellence-2015’ programme.

Telangana State Table Tennis Association was informed about this by the Table Tennis Federation of India and Sreeja, a student of Badruka College, will be attending a training camp in Sweden from August 6 to 17 then fly for the Bulgaria Open (August 19-23) before capping off the tour in the Czech Open (August 24 to 30).

“It’s thrilling and this international exposure will help me a lot. I give credit to my coach, Somnath Ghosh, at the Global Table Tennis Academy,” was Sreeja’s reaction. Equally brilliant in academics, she had missed out the top rank in Intermediate by just eight marks.

“I hope to be a much better player after this European circuit. My focus will be to show an all-round improvement in my game,” Sreeja remarked. TSTTA president A. Narasimha Reddy, secretary P. Prakash Raju and Jt. secretary A. Narasimha Rao congratulated the player.

Her coach observed it was an apt recognition for the young champion, having won 19 medals including 12 golds for India in the last two years. “She has the talent to go places and being in the Indian camp has helped,” he pointed out. Before her tour, Sreeja will attend the national camp in Delhi from July 8 to July 22 before taking part in the Asian championship in Malaysia from July 22 to 27 and the All-India Inter-institutional championship from July 29. “We are very proud of her,” said her parents – Praveen Kumar and Sai Sudha.