Telangana, Andhra joint teams at National Games

Meghana Gundalapally from is Telangana, her three other teammates are from Andhra Pradesh. But they are playing under the banner of united Andhra Pradesh, and just grabbed gold in the Rhythmic Gymnastics team event at the National Games, now being played in Kerala.
Aruna Budda Reddy, also playing with the Andhra Pradesh team, won the silver and bronze in the artistic gymnastics team event.Nikhat Banu, a table tennis player from Loyola College, Hyderabad also participated in the games under the united AP banner.
Surprising as it may sound, though it is nearly nine months since the creation of Telangana, the first National Games has quite a few teams which are playing under the united Andhra Pradesh banner. This turn of events is because the State Olympics Association conducts the qualifying tests for the National Games according to its own schedule.
"It is a pre-condition that the teams have to qualify in the stipulated time. While the volleyball teams could not qualify, gymnastics and table tennis qualified seven months before the formation of Telangana. That's why we clubbed them with AP teams and together, they are represented as United AP," says the general secretary of State Olympics Association, K Jagdishwar Yadav.
Director of Competition B K Harinath says, "There are quite a few students from Hyderabad. When we do the selection process, we select them as sportspersons. At present it's difficult to give the exact break-up of how many people are representing Telangana in the United AP. However, from next year onwards, they will play as two different states."
Nikhat Banu says, "we were five players representing Telangana for table tennis. We played against teams of Maharashtra and Delhi in singles. Three matches were played, but we lost in the quarterfinals. There is much confusion within the management regarding the United AP. I am glad this confusion won't be there the next year. We all will be representing Telangana separately."