Thaindian News

By Bharat Sharma
New Delhi, Oct 2 (IANS) Aesthetically, the table tennis venue at the Yamuna Sports Complex (YSC) looks good, but the foreign athletes practising there Saturday complained of lack of space at the show court which will hold important matches, including India’s.

The England men’s team practising at the the show court said the playing area is not sufficient to move around freely.

“We practised in the match court area and it is spacious. But the showcourt has not enough room to move around. The advertising boards are too close for comfort. To add to that, the broadcasters are testing their equipment very near to the table. It could hurt us,” England No.1 Paul Drinkhall told IANS.

The white chairs in the background inside the arena are creating visibility issues. Members of the New Zealand women’s team said the chairs are a big distraction during practice.

“Please tell them to change the chairs. It hits you right in the eye. You can’t really focus on the ball while playing,” said Yang Sun, a Kiwi paddler.

The Organising Committee (OC) officials have planned to host the low profile matches in the match court, which has eight tables. While the state-of-the-art show court has two tables. And they said the playing arena of both the have been designed keeping in mind the guidelines of the International International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).

“The players have enough space. I don’t know why some of the players are making an issue about it. All IITF guidelines have been followed in the making of the venue,” said an OC official at YSC.

According to the rules, the playing area surrounding a table should be minimum of 7metres/14 metres.

“The area provided here is bigger than that,” the official added.

–Indo–Asian News Service
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