Flight cancellation plays havoc with paddlers in TT meet

Twenty-two paddlers were left in the lurch when a private airline cancelled its flight bound for Aizawl from Guwahati, citing "technical reasons".

All the players who arrived from Delhi and Mumbai by the same airline, were to take the connecting flight to the Mizoram capital to participate in the ongoing National Ranking (East Zone) Table Tennis Championships on Thursday.

But soon after their arrival at the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi Airport at Guwahati, the players were told that the flight to Aizawl will not take off and they will be sent only on Friday.

This unforeseen situation has led standard players, some of whom accompanied by their parents, at Guwahati calling up competition Manager N. Ganeshan and requesting him to reschedule matches.

The tournament concludes on saturday, according to its earlier schedule. The flight cancellation has played havoc with the entire match schedule.

"The TTFI has considered their request and we are starting the match at 2 p.m. tomorrow," said Ganeshan.

But Ganeshan also admitted that this has not only put those players travelling to Alzawl in trouble but also the entire referees team, which includes 40 international and national umpires.

"We have to complete the championships the day after because all players and officials have their return bookings for Sunday morning and afternoon," he said.

Meanwhile, Anthony Amalraj defeated Sanil Shetty 4-3 ( 7-11, 9-11, 13-11, 11-7, 11-9, 6-11, 11-9) to lift the men's singles trophy.

Madhurika Patkar decimated an in-form Reeth Rishya 4-1 (11-7, 11-9, 11-9, 10-12, 15-13) to clinch the women's singles trophy at the R. Dengthuama Multipurpose Indoor Stadium here on Thursday.

--IANS

dm/sam/vt