CHENNAI: G Sathiyan’s personal coach, S Raman, will travel with his ward to the World Cup at Chengdu from October 18 to 20. Sathiyan, who qualified after finishing sixth at the ITTF-ATTU Asian Cup in April, can pick up more ranking points.
“He has come up by leaps and bounds,” Raman told this daily during a function to launch the Raman Foundation at his high performance centre on Friday. “I will go to the South Zone national ranking championship in Thiruvananthapuram (August 14-21). After that, I will join Sathiyan and be with him till the World Cup.”
About the Foundation itself, Raman said it was a means of giving something back. “This is a means of giving something back to the sport. I already hand out subsidies and scholarships worth `1 lakh to students. This has been a few years in the making. Now, I have decided to do all of those grants through the foundation.”
The Raman Foundation also pledged to donate `20,000 per month to Project Sambandh, an initiative started by Vembu Shankar, a former member of the Indian Army. Sambandh’s initiative is to help the lives of families of soldiers who died on duty, but not in battle.
Kevin cracks ton
K Kevin Romario’s century helped Saint Michael’s Academy beat Saint John’s by 278 runs in the TNCA City Schools U-16 tournament for C Ramaswamy Trophy.
Brief scores: Nellai Nadar ‘B’ 137 in 27.2 ovs (Michael Antony Vimalan 32, M Naresh Kumar 3/14, P Gopinath 3/26) bt Ramakrishna Mission 66 in 16.5 ovs (S Aadil Ahmed 4/18, AP Pragadeesh Kumar 3/18). Saint Michael’s Academy 352/1 in 30 ovs (K Kevin Romario 160, K Sai Kishore 35, VS Aaditya 112 n.o.) bt Saint John’s 74 in 22.3 ovs (N Shiva Prasath 4/9). Saint Mary’s 109 in 17.2 overs (S Vijay Milton 49, G Varun 4/25) lost to Chinmaya Vidyalaya 113/5 in 20.1 ovs (SK Vikaas 45). Sri Chaitanya Techno School 163 in 25.1 ovs (S Sachin Saini 47, E Gokula Kannan 4/23, V Vinoth Kumar 5/26) bt Sri Ahobila Math 146 in 27.5 ovs (P Vasantha Murthy 65, S Ritiesh Panihari 6/17). Government HSS ‘B’ 341/4 in 30 ovs (H Kanish 125 n.o, T Kumaragurubaran 88, R Kaif Ahemed 55) bt BVM Global School 37 in 12.2 ovs (R Krithick Babu 5/4, D Shriram 3/9). Lalaji Memorial Omega 298 for no loss in 30 ovs (S Shrenik 121 n.o, P Tejesh 118 n.o.) bt APL Global School 84 in 19.1 ovs.
Shamini in semis
K Shamini of Jawahar beat Swetha Kumaravel of AGORC in the women’s quarterfinals of the Chennai Achievers 8th Tamil Nadu state-ranking table tennis tournament.