Treble for Soham at All Kerala Open TT tournament

KOCHI: Competing with vigour after Kerala High Court intervened, Alappuzha YMCA TT Academy's Soham Chatterjee dominated the All Kerala Open TT tournament organised by KDTTA at VK Krishnamenon Indoor Stadium, Kozhikode on Sunday by sweeping the men's, boys youth and junior titles.
This was Soham's first tournament after he was prevented entry by the Kerala Table Tennis Association in state ranking tournaments for failing to produce residential proof of at least one year in Kerala.
The player and AYTTA mate Soumyajeet Bose, was forced to move the Kerala High court challenging KTTA's arbitrary decision and the court ruled in favour of the duo which enabled them to compete in the tournament in Kozhikode after missing Thiruvalla and Amabalamughal tournaments.
Soham son of Samit Bhattacharjee who is coach of AYTTA and a 10th standard student of St Mary's Residential Central School, Alappuzha while Soumyajeet is plus two student and assists Samit in coaching. Despite producing NoCs from the Bengal Table Tennis Association which was cleared by the national body TTFI, Soham also played in the central zone national ranking tournament at Indore and played in two state ranking tournaments.
"I'm glad that I lived up to the billing. There is nothing like winning and I was really pepped up and winning the men's title was like the best," Soham told TOI.
It's strange that KTTA who is the governing body of the game in the state play truant and that too against the wishes of players. The TTFI, the national body, too took a strong objection of KTTA. And threatened to disaffiliate the state body.
Meanwhile, SDV TT Academy paddlers Maria Rony (women), Seraha Jacob (youth girls) and Abhaya G (junior girls) clinched the other titles on offer.
Final results GIRLS women: Maria Rony (SDVTTA, Alp) bt Seraha Jacob (SDVTTA) 9-11, 11-4, 11-9, 11-9, 13-11, youth: Seraha bt Maria 11-9, 12-10, 11-6, 11-5; Junior: Abhaya G (SDVTTA) bt Aswathy BS (Tvm) 11-9, 14-12, 11-5, 7-11, 9-11, 11-7; sub-junior: Reeva Anna Michael (AYTTA) bt Jyothika Hemanth (RSC, EKm) 11-1, 13-11, 11-6; BOYS men: Soham Bhattacharya (AYTTA) bt Senthil Kumar R (Tvm) 11-8, 11-9, 11-8, 14-12; youth: Soham bt Anas Mohammed Irshad (SDVTTA) 14-12, 12-10, 11-9, 11-7; junior: Soham bt Adithya Joseph (KRPMTTA, Ekm) 11-6, 11-7, 11-6, 11-9; sub-jr: Adithya bt Md Sahil (TTA, Kkd) 11-6, 11-7, 11-9.