The day was cloudy, but it didn’t affect the spirits of the players. Participants arrived at the venue, Nashua Table Tennis Club, well in time for the event on Sep 12, 2010. Although there was some delay, we had quite a few last minute registrations and we were off to a great start. We had a total of 27 participants – 12 in Under-15 Category and 15 in the Open Category.

This was 2nd consecutive year of IANH (India Association of New Hampshire) organizing Table Tennis tournament. The main reason of adding sports as part of IANH was to encourage junior and youth members to be part of and compete in sporting events. This was well-achieved this year as participation in the Under-15 category increased many fold as compared to last year!

We randomly formed the groups … juniors were split into 2 groups of 6 players each and Open Category players were divided into 3 groups of 5 each. In the first open round, each player in the group played with every other player in a round-robin way. As shown in the pictures, top 6 players from both categories moved to the next round.

Top 6 players from Under-15 Category (from left to right) - Samip Desai, Avvin Radakrishnan, Sumeet Salvi, Anish Thilagar, Amol Khanna, Roshan Tadi

Top 6 players from Open Category (from left to right): Akshay Kothare, Anmol Wadhwa, Vimal Mannava, Abhay Kelkar, Veera Kyabarsi, John Segal

During breaks, I noticed that everybody seemed really enthusiastic and dedicated to this tournament.  I could tell that they were thinking in their minds, “This is not a joke.”

We had round-robin play in the 2nd round as well. This was a much more intense round as this would determine the winners. Finally, we had 3 players tied in each of categories and when we tallied the overall games and scores, following were declared winners & runner-ups in each of the categories.
  
Under-15 Category
Winner: Samip Desai
1st Runner-up: Avvin Radakrishnan
2nd Runner-up: Sumeet Salvi
 
Open Category
Winner: Anmol Wadhwa
1st Runner-up: Abhay Kelkar
2nd Runner-up: Akshay Kothare 

Trophies and certificates will be awarded to the winners and runner-ups during the IANH Diwali Festival on Saturday Oct 30, 2010. 
 
IANH would like to thank all the participants and their family members who helped make this a successful event and hope to get their continued support in the coming years.  

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