Gundu Rao elected KTTA president

Having put an elected body in place, the Karnataka Table Tennis Association (KTTA) on Tuesday unveiled its plans to improve the sport in the state.

KTTA, which was run by an ad-hoc body since September 2007, held an Annual General Meeting (AGM) on June 2 to elect a new executive committee.

Dinesh Gundu Rao, State Food and Civil Supplies Minister, was unanimously elected president of the association while J Alexander was elected chairman.

L Nagendra Prasad, GN Sathyanarayana, HD Ramesh Shastry, TB Ramesh, Gunalan, Sudhakaran and Harish Puthran were elected vice-presidents while K S Vasanth Kumar was elected secretary (administration) and R Nandan secretary (technical).

Better facility

KTTA officials said they were on the look-out for a full-fledged indoor facility to host an ITTF World Table Tennis (Pro) event in January next year. The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) had asked the KTTA whether it would be able to organise the big event.

“We have to find a place where we have centralised air-conditioning system by October, only then can we be in a position to host the Pro event,”  Vasanth Kumar told a press conference. KTTA will organise State-level inter-school tournaments later this year comprising ICSE, CBSE and State board schools in co-operation with the government.

“We may have the tournament in August at the Sree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium. We plan to organise it in two categories, CBSE and ICSE schools in one section and State board schools in another,. Students will participate in two age categories -- 5th standard to 7th and 8th to 10th,’’’ Kumar added.

KTTA office-bearers: Dinesh Gundu Rao (president), J Alexander (chairman), L Nagendra Prasad, GN Sathyanarayana, HD Ramesh Shastry, TB Ramesh, Gunalan, Sudhakaran, Harish Puthran (all vice-presidents), KS Vasanth Kumar (secretary, administration), R Nandan (secretary, technical), TG Upadhya, TS Ramkumar (joint secretaries), Bona Thomas John (treasurer).