Indian paddlers to train in China ahead of Olympics

With just a month left for the London Games, Olympic-bound Indian paddlers Soumyajit Ghosh and Ankita Das will leave for Zhengding, China on Sunday for a 16-day long training camp.

The two paddlers will be joined by Anthony Amalraj and Kumaresan Shamini as sparring partners along with foreign coach Leszek Kucharski, secretary general of Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI), Dhanraj Choudhary informed.

Choudhary said the training camp will help the young players to hone their skills ahead of the all-important London Olympics.

"They have been practicing hard at the SAI centre Patiala, but Zhengding is one of the world's best training centres. A training stint there ahead of the Olympics will definitely help the performance of the players in London," he insisted.

Asked whether the players would take out time to get acclimatised to the conditions in London, Choudhary said, "Our team will leave for London on July 21, a week ahead of their event. Besides they have already played in Sweden and Austria earlier this year, so I don't think acclimatisation is going to be an issue."

The TTFI secretary general, meanwhile, informed that the two Olympic-bound paddlers will be accompanied by Polish coach, Kucharski for the Olympics.

India will also be sending a 14-member junior team to Jiangyin, China to participate in the 18th Asian Junior Table Tennis Championship and the Cadet Championship to be held from July 11 to July 16.

The junior paddlers will leave for the event on Sunday and will train at the venue for almost a week before the tournament kicks off.

The team will be accompanied by national coach, Bhawani Mukherji and Sandeep Gupta, Choudhary added.