Six paddlers found overage at junior nationals

Six paddlers have been disqualified from the Cadet and Sub-Junior National Table Tennis championships here after they were found to be overage.
The paddlers, who were sent out of the championships following the medical jurists' report, two belonged to West Bengal (Avijit Basu and Koushani Nath) and one each from North Bengal (Ritika Kundu), Assam (Shankar Gautam Barua), Himachal Pradesh (Aryan) and Karnataka (Rohan Jamadagni).
Except for one cadet boy, all others were sub-juniors.
In fact, Koushani, seeded seventh in sub-junior singles, played a crucial role in helping West Bengal win sub-junior girls' team crown. According to the rules, the team stands to lose the title, but it has been left to the TTFI's Executive Board, which is meeting in Patna on January 12 to arrive at a decision.

If the Executive Board decides to withdraw the title from West Bengal, then Tamil Nadu, who finished runners-up, will be elevated to the top. However, no team will be given the silver medal since there was no bronze medal play-off match.
Admitting that the TTFI measures have put the others teams on alert, secretary general Dhanraj Choudhary said, "Our message was loud and clear to all state associations before the championships. We are only trying to put an end to this malady."

In the first lot of medical tests conducted on the second day of the championships, three players and the Mizoram team were scrapped. With the championships coming to its business end tomorrow, the TTFI has already noted down a few more names that are under the scanner.

The overage issue may have taken the sheen off the singles events somewhat, but matches in both the Cadet Boys and Girls retained their intensity as pre-quarterfinalists were spotted.
Six from the top half of Cadet Boys were stretched but Andhra's B Vishnu, Delhi's Payas Jain, PSPBA's Alberto, West Bengal's Snehasish Paul, PSPBA's Jeho and North Bengal's Mainik Das moved into the pre-quarterfinals.
From the bottom half, only Subhra Jyoti Paul (North Bengal) and Tamil Nadu's Kushagra Verma struggled before making the grade.