Bengaluru SAI centre to get NCoE for Table Tennis: TTFI Secretary Kamlesh Mehta

The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) is set to erect a National Centre of Excellence (NCoE) at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in South, as announced by the TTFI secretary general Kamlesh Mehta on Wednesday at a felicitation programme in Karnataka.

According to the Times of India report, the official added that this would be the second NCoE focussing on table tennis, after the one that was founded in Kolkata.

The report went on to reveal how the federation is planning to make the Karnataka centre operational at the earliest so that a camp can be started there, Moreover, the officials are also in talks with the Odisha government, which has always been supportive of sports publicly, to establish something there as well.

Mehta went on to explain how the federation's priority so far in the year was to finish all the Nationals before March so that the WTT Conteder in Goa could also be accommodated in the schedule and the players would then be able to participate in it.

"Besides the Worlds next month, we also have the Asian Championships and the Asian Games. Then comes the World Team qualifiers later in the year. It's going to be a packed season so we want to start our domestic season as early as we can as it will give the players some breathing time," Mehta told TOI.

"We have a good chance of winning two medals at the Asian Games. Last Asiad was historic as it was the first time we won medals," the secretary concluded in his interview with the TOI.