The Petroleum Sports Promotion Board has received the top billing in all the four events of the 43rd Inter-Institutional Table Tennis Championships, to be held in Dharward (Karnataka) from August 22 to 27.
Based on last year's performance, the Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) has been seeded behind PSPB in team events of both men's and women's sections. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) have been seeded second in the Youth Boys and Youth Girls sections.
Leading players like Soumyajit Ghosh, Sanil Shetty, Soumyadeep Roy in the men's category, and K Shamini, Poulami Ghatak, Ankita Das and Madhurika Patkar will be vying for top honours for their institutions.
The championships carry a total prize purse of Rs 3.32 lakh, with the top eight sharing the spoils.
The championships, which are the season-opener and the second-most important event after the nationals in the TTFI calendar, attracts country's top paddlers and will be hosted by the Dharward District Table Tennis Association (DDTTA).
With 19 institutions having entered the championships, 18 men's teams and 12 women's teams have been divided into six and four groups respectively, to play in the first stage.
Only two teams from each group will qualify for the second stage.
Incidentally, the institutional championships being the selection event for the senior Inter-State and National Championships, to be held at Bihar in January next year, only the top two teams in both the events will qualify for the nationals.
There will also be an Inter-Institutional Youth Boys and Youth Girls team events featuring four and five teams respectively.
The teams will play in the round-robin league format to determine final positions. The winner in each category will be eligible to participate in the Junior Inter-State and National Championships to be held in Guwahati in December.
