File photo of Achanta Sharath Kamal.
A national table tennis training camp, featuring four-time Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Sharath Kamal along with 10 other players, will be held in Sonepat from October 28 to December 8, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) said on Saturday.
SAI has sanctioned Rs 18 lakh for the camp, which will be the first national camp for the sport since the announcement of the nationwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 outbreak in March earlier this year.
"The Sports Authority of India has approved the national coaching camp for Table Tennis, which will commence on 28th October till 8th December," SAI said in a statement.
"The camp comprising 11 players (5 male, 6 female) and four support staff will be conducted by the Table Tennis Federation of India at the Delhi Public School, Sonepat.
This follows multiple attempts by the Table Tennis Federation of India to hold the camp but not succeeding at them for failure to convince players to join.
Sharath Kamal will be part of the men's training group where he will be joined by Manush Shah, Manav Thakkar, Sudhanshu Grover and Jubin Kumar.
The women's training group will comprise Anusha Kutumbale, Diya Chitale, Suthirtha Mukherjee, Archana Kamath, Takeme Sarkar and Kaushani Nath.
"I had been training at home in Bengaluru but looking forward to return to a camp environment where I can get to see my compatriots in the Indian team after a long time and train with them," said Archana Kamath, who is a part of the Target Olympic Podium scheme development group.
Kamath, a semifinalist at the 2018 Youth Olympics, said her ultimate goal is to qualify for the Olympics.
SAI also said that "campers will be staying in the residential facilities at DPS, Sonepat" and abide by the Standard Operating Procedures for the resumption of sporting activities.
India won eight medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. The country won two bronze medals for the first time ever at the Asian Games the same year.
