Indian men's and women's paddlers to play for 25-32 positions

Dortmund (Germany), March 28 (IANS) Indian men and women paddlers made it to the second stage of the Liebherr World Table Tennis Championships here Wednesday and would now settle for rankings between 25 and 32.

The men's team, comprising Sharath Kamal, Amal Raj, Sumyajit Ghosh, Sanil Shetty and Soumyadeep Roy and placed in group E second division, progressed after beating Finland, Nigeria, Canada with identical 3-0 margins, while losing to Romania 1-3.

They will now take on Norway later Wednesday. But irrespective of the outcome of that match, India's men have qualified to play for positions 25-32.

Similarly, the Indian women's team, consisting of Poulami Ghatak, Mouma Das, K Shamini, Ankita Das and Mousmi Paul, too will play in positional matches between 25 and 32.

The women paddlers first began with a 1-3 loss against Israel, and then beat England 3-2 in a thriller. They, however, lost their third match against Italy 1-3 before regrouping themselves to beat Estonia 3-0 and finally Nigeria 3-0 to finish second and qualify for the second stage.