New Delhi, April 28 (IANS) The Sports Authority of India (SAI) put in place a comprehensive support worth over Rs 90 lakh to ensure the Indian table tennis team put their best foot forward at the centenary ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships (WTTC), which gets underway in London on Tuesday.

The event is scheduled from April 28 to May 10 at the OVO Arena in Wembley.

A 19-member Indian contingent, comprising 10 players, three coaches, three support staff and three sparring partners, are representing the country at the prestigious global event, with leading names such as Manika Batra, Gnanasekaran Sathiyan, Manav Thakkar and Harmeet Desai spearheading the challenge across men’s and women’s competitions.

The Indian men’s are drawn alongside Slovakia, Tunisia and Guatemala, while the women’s team will take on Ukraine, Uganda and Rwanda in the group stages. The group stage matches are scheduled between April 28 and May 1.

The Indian teams will be looking to go further this time around; both the men’s and women’s teams advanced to the knockout stages but exited in the Round of 32 in the 2024 edition of the competition in Busan.

Table Tennis will not feature in the Commonwealth Games 2026 but the WTTC London will provide a good litmus test ahead of the Asian Games 2026 in Japan, and also determine India’s preparation and bench strength as the games are set to return at the centenary Commonwealth Games 2030 in Bharat.

In the lead-up to the 2026 World Team Table Tennis Championships, Sports Authority of India sanctioned a series of preparatory camps to fine-tune the team’s performance. A national coaching camp was held at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports Centre in Bengaluru from April 13 to 19 at a cost of Rs 13.26 lakh, followed by an overseas training stint in Sheffield from April 21 to 26, backed with Rs 20.92 lakh, according to SAI release.

This phased preparation combining domestic conditioning with international exposure was done with the aim of sharpening match readiness and adapting Massimo Constantini’s players to the European playing conditions.

SAI also released a total fund of approximately Rs 60.1 lakh to the Table Tennis Federation of India to ensure the team’s participation, including airfare, boarding and lodging, out-of-pocket allowances and entry fees, for our athletes and officials in the event.

Indian Teams for ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships 2026:

Men’s team: Manav Thakkar, Manush Shah, G Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai, Payas Jain

Women’s team: Manika Batra, Yashaswini Ghorpade, Diya Chitale, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Syndrela Das

Coaches: Massimo Costantini (Foreign Expert), Sourav Chakraborty, Somnath Ghosh

–IANS

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