Table Tennis, being an indoor sport, is among the more popular sports on campus. In the game, a player serves by striking the ball so that it touches first his/her court and then, after passing over the net, touches directly the receiver’s court. Once the ball has been served, both players are to make returns by ensuring the ball touches at least and at most once at the receiver’s end until a point is scored.

Lavanya Karthikeyan, the captain of the Table Tennis (Girls) team for BOSM 2018 spared some time from routine practice to talk to the BOSM English Press about the sport and her experience as a captain.

‘For TT (Girls), we don’t see a lot of participants,’ claims Lavanya as this BOSM, the team consists only herself, a fourth yearite, and a PhD student. The lack of participation is also evident in other colleges, as the previous BOSM only saw one other team coming to BITS.

This time round, the girls from  IIT Delhi are strong contenders, but Lavanya didn’t even flinch while thinking about them as she’s confident of her team’s robust training regimen, which comprises of daily early morning practice sessions at the SAC.  

Not only are the BITSian TT girls the defending champions for BOSM, but they also generally participate in quite a few outstation tournaments held in colleges in Delhi as well as IIT Roorkee, and even the tournament held in BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus, where they clinched the gold last year.

On a personal note, Lavanya shares that she started her Table Tennis coaching back in the eighth grade. Being a captain does not affect Lavanya’s academics or her proficiency at the sport, as all she has to do is deal with a few logistical issues at times and help with the organisation and structure of the tournament. When asked about her favourite player, she tells us she deeply admires Sharath Kamal, the World No.3 and tries to incorporate aspects of his game.

Interactions with the CoSSAc/Sports Council have not been a difficult chore for Lavanya as, according to her, everything seems to run like clockwork. ‘Please come for tryouts, we really need more people,’ appeals Lavanya to all BITSians, bringing the interview to a close.