GUWAHATI, Nov 9 � The first Nagen Hazarika and fifth RG Baruah All Assam Major Ranking Table Tennis Championships was inaugurated by the State Forest Minister and president of the Assam Table Tennis Association (ATTA) Rockybul Hussain at the Tarun Ram Phookan Indoor Stadium here today.
However, the matches of the tournament were started earlier. About 250 players from the ATTA affiliated units like Nagaon, Guwahati, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Dibrugarh, Duliajan, Mangaldai, N Lakhimpur, Golaghat, NF Railway are taking part in the championships.
Inaugurating the championships, Hussain said the State TT body is sincerely trying to hook in high quality coaches and already had discussion with the Table Tennis Federation of India in this regard. He also revealed that the ATTA will sponsor former players who will prefer to under go coaching courses.
ATTA secretary Tridib Duvarah, welcoming the gathering said they are putting best efforts in producing quality players in the State. Apart from inviting foreign coaches they are regularly sending players to USA for advance training. But he expressed his concern over the poor performances of the State players in the national tournaments. He appealed all the players to take advantage of the facilities and improve their performance. Duvarah said that the ATTA will finalise its annual calendar at the beginning of the year so that the players and the guardians could select the tournaments where they will participate.
Competitions in the groups of Cadet, Sub-junior, Junior, Youth and Senior (both male and female) will be conducted during the championships.
Kanchan Hazarika, wife of Nagen Hazarika, former players like Bijoy Hazarika, Sankar Dutta Lahkar along with a host of sports organisers and former players were present on the occasion.
