Not many are aware of the National Sports Day, which is celebrated in India on August 29. This day marks the birthday of Dhyan Chand, the legendary hockey player who won gold medals for India in the years 1928,1932 and 1936. Not knowing the importance of this day, some of the schools have even kept exams on this day. But, 11even Sports, which is promoting the game of Table Tennis in India, have decided to celebrate this day, by organizing Inter School Table Tennis State Championship, simultaneously across 27 states in India, coinciding with this day.
Kamlesh Mehta with sponsors and organiising committee members of this event
8 times National TT champion Mr. Kamlesh Mehta who is also the Director of 11even Sports, revealed this at a press conference today afternoon, at Khar Gymkhana, Mumbai. Speaking on the occasion, he emphasized the need of grooming the budding TT players at school level. “Road to Olympics begins at school and therefore we decided to hold this event,” he said. The tournament is to be held between 29th and 31st August 2016 and will be jointly organized in Mumbai by 11even sports along with Mumbai Suburban District Table Tennis Association, under the auspices of Table Tennis Federation of India & Maharashtra State Table tennis Association.
This tournament will be sponsored by Robomate+, a curriculam based study app and is powered by Square Off Sports, a premier Sports Management company, in association with Khar Gymkhana as their venue partner for the event and Performax and Stiga as Active wear Partner and ball sponsor respectively. Present on the occasion were, Dr.Chhaya Shastri, Director,MT Educare,Ashish Agarwal,Managing Director & Co Founder, Square Off Sports, Sanjay Devnani, president ,Khar Gymkhana & members of the Tournament organizing committee.
After the state level matches are over, the winners of Junior and Sub Junior Boys and Girls teams will get their entry into Schools nationals, to be played on 9th 10th and 11 December 2016 at a suitable venue India , which is yet to be decided. The tournament will kick off at 27 states including J&K, simultaneously but excluding few North eastern states and two other states, who have asked for alteration of dates. All the teams qualifying for the national championship will be provided accommodation, food and local travelling free, during the entire period of national event.