These are good times for Delhi table tennis. Four of its players -- Parth Virmani, Shivjit Singh Lamba, Ishita Gupta and Sristhi Gupta -- were selected to represent India in the 14th World Schools Championship to be held at Eilat, Israel, from April 2 to 8.
Four other members of the team will be Asif Khan (Rajasthan), Pawan and Varuni Jaiswal (Telangana) and Shruti Amrute (Maharashtra).
This is an invitational tournament where selected school teams in both boys and girls sections are allowed to participate. The school teams are chosen on the basis of merit generally by the School Games Federation of India (SGFI).
Accordingly, two-day selection trials were held at Agra this weekend and the eight members, who are regulars in the national ranking championship circuit of the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI), emerged to make to the Indian team.
Both Parth and Shivjit are students of Hansraj Model School, Punjabi Bagh, while Ishita and Sristhi represent Manavsthali and DPS Mathura Road, respectively. Incidentally, all of them train under coach Sandeep Gupta.
The championship has the endorsement of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).
