CHENNAI: The season's final UTT Table Tennis National Ranking Championships in Ranchi is all set to go on, despite delays and in some cases cancellations of flights across the country. The tournament is set to begin from Saturday. However, owing to delays in travel by players, matches in the U11 and U13 category will now begin from 1pm on Saturday, organising officials have confirmed. The country's largest airline IndiGo's operations crumbled, with 750 flights reported to be cancelled on Friday.
The Table Tennis Federation of India, along with the Jharkhand Table Tennis Association (JKTTA) are hosting the tournament.
"Organisers and technical team have decided to wait for the U11 and U13 players up to 12 noon on December 7, (Sunday) and allow those late arrivals to play their league matches," a statement in TTFI's website read.
JKTTA's secretary and organising secretary of the tournament Samar Jeet Singh confirmed the details. "Owing to delays and cancellations we decided to postpone the start of the tournament to 1pm," Singh told this daily.
The Union Civil Aviation Ministry has reportedly said it expects flight schedules to stabilise by Saturday.
Former Olympian and table tennis coach S Raman, whose wards are set to take part in the meet, hoped that the flights are back as per schedule. "We have around two-three players in the U11 and U13 category. Fingers crossed, we hope to see them travel on time," he said.
The championships will have the U15, U17, U19 and senior categories on the menu, which will begin by December 9. Most of Raman's wards are contesting in the aforementioned categories. "The players are told to let go of this tournament, if the situation does not get solved by then. Tickets from other airlines seem to be very expensive," he said.