Hip injury may affect Sharath Kamal’s performance: Mehta

MUMBAI: Former India coach Kamlesh Mehta feels that India’s most experienced paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal’s hip injury may affect his performance at the Rio Olympics which will be held from August 5 to 21.
“He had suffered a hip and hamstring injury during the World Table Tennis Championships in Suzhou, China, last year in May. It was a bad injury which required him to stay away from sports for a few months. It can impact his performance at Rio,” felt the former Olympian.
The 33-year-old Sharath Kamal is most experienced player among four member table tennis Indian squad at Rio which is biggest ever contingent for India in the history of the Summer Games.Kamal had played at Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008). This will be third Olympics for the current world No. 73.
Other members of the Indian team are young Soumyajit Ghosh (world No. 65) who participated in the previous Games at London in 2012. The 32-year-old Mouma Das (world No. 158) was there at Athens while 21-year-old Manika Batra will be competing for the first time.
It is a good mixture of youth and experience, felt Mehta. “Sharath Kamal and Mouma Das have the ability to carry youngsters well. I am sure we have the right mixture of youth and experience,” said the eight times national champion.
Mehta, however, cautioned against expecting a podium finish from the paddlers. “It would be great even if they manage to win the first round in that knock-out format. Anything beyond that would be exceptional,” 60-year-old opined.