Four districts, one hall at Lodhan: Kashi hosts the divisional girls' table tennis meet on Wednesday

Wednesday morning belongs to the paddles. From 11 am, the Babu R.N. Singh Indoor Sports Hall at Lodhan hosts the 70th divisional school girls' table tennis championship — a single day of play that decides which girls from the Varanasi division travel onward to the state meet. Four districts are entered: Varanasi, Jaunpur, Chandauli and Ghazipur, with players in the under-14, under-17 and under-19 age groups. That spread is what makes a divisional round worth turning up for. A fourteen-year-old from a Chandauli school can find herself across the net from a Jaunpur player she has only heard about, and the whole thing is settled in one long, loud, fast-moving day. What is at stake is a place at the state-level championship in Bareilly, scheduled for September 23 to 26. Selection is made on how the girls play here, so there is no second window later in the season — everything rests on Wednesday. Divisional sports secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh is overseeing the arrangements. For Kashi this is the second school-sport date inside the same week, after the district's open junior athletics trials. It is a good stretch for anyone who follows the city's young players: two very different disciplines, two sets of selections, and a fresh list of names heading out to carry the division's colours.

Compiled by HelloBanaras from public sources: Amar Ujala — Varanasi