BHUBANESWAR: After successfully hosting international sports events like the Hockey World Cup, the state is all set to organise the 21st Commonwealth Table Tennis Championship at Jawaharlal Indoor Stadium in Cuttack from July 17 to 22.
Vishal Kumar Dev, Secretary, Sports and Youth Services Department signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Monday with SN Sultan, Senior Vice-President, Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) and LN Gupta, President, Odisha State Table Tennis Association (OSTTA) in the presence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Minister for Sports and Youth Services Tusharkanti Behera.
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Officials from all three organising bodies were present.
“Today’s MoU is an important milestone for the state in promotion of sports like table tennis. I congratulate TTFI and OSTTA for partnering with our government. I hope this event will give table tennis its share of limelight in the state, with India performance quotient going up in recent times,” the Chief Minister said.
India, Singapore, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, England, Scotland, Wales, Jersey, Australia, Cyprus, South Africa, Nigeria and Pakistan are the 14 nations that will participate in men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles.
“The championship will see participation of some of the best players from across the globe. It will be exciting to watch the event,” said Minister Tusharkanti Behera.
Thanking the state government, Gupta said Odisha TT team is ranked 10th in the country and the championship will be extremely encouraging for our players. It is for the seventh time that India will host the event and Odisha for the first time.