Nepal to host South Asian Regional Table Tennis qualification for Paris Olympics

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, May 6: Nepal is hosting the South Asian Regional Qualification Tournament for table tennis in May with the winners qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics. 

Organising a press conference at Tripureshwor, Kathmandu, on Sunday, members of the All Nepal Table Tennis Association informed that the tournament was scheduled for May 13-15.

According to the organisers, two male and two female players each are participating in the tournament from five countries – Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the Maldives.

While the All Nepal Table Tennis Association is facilitating the tournament, it is being overseen by the International Table Tennis Federation.

“India has already qualified for the Olympics based on their results in the World Table Tennis Championship. Since India is the favourite in South Asia, their unavailability in the qualification is a plus point for Nepal,” said Tejendra Singh Mahara, a member of the Association.

Sanyog Kapali and Santu Shrestha alongside Nabita Shrestha and Ivana Thapa Magar are representing Nepal in the qualification.

“The winners in the men’s and women’s categories will qualify for the Olympics. We have high hopes for our players as they are well prepared and training regularly,” said Rajendra Kapali, National Table Tennis Coach.

According to Kapali, the players were selected after a competition between the national-level players.

“We had selected the top 16 men and women players from the 9th National Games. There were four more players each in both categories included from outside the tournament. We then conducted a competition among them to select the four players for the South Asian Qualification,” said Kapali.

“If a Nepali player wins, s/he will be only the third Nepali to enter the Olympics by ‘winning the qualifiers’. The only two Nepalis to ever do so are Sangina Baidya and Deepak Bista,” Kapali added. 

“We brought the tournament to Nepal with great hardships. We are looking forward to our players winning at home,” said Shanker Gautam, General-Secretary at the Association.

As per the organisers, the Association will be revealing more about the event in the upcoming days.