Four-time Olympian Elena Timina and former German women's team head coach Jorg Bitzigeio were picked by Goa Challengers and defending champions Chennai Lions respectively in the coaches draft for the Ultimate Table Tennis. (More Sports News)
The season four of the franchise-based league, which is happening after a ♋gap of three years owing to the COVID-19 pandem꧙ic, is slated from July 13-30 at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune.
A member of the 1994 World Cup-winning Russian team, Timina coached the Netherlands women's side beܫtween 2012 and 2017 and had also led the side to two gold and one silver medal in the 2015 Euro🔜pean Games.
Timina will be assisted by Indian c༒oach Parag Agarwal. Each team is♛ coached by one international and one Indian coach.
"The draft was wond💛erful for us. We got our two top coaches," said Vivek Bhargava, the Goa Challengers' owner.
Bitzigeio had guided the German women's ꦬteam to bronze medal at the 2010 World Team Championships.
He also coached the US national since 2017 aꦰnd helped them win 47 medals in the Pan American Games.
"The comb♛ination of Somnath Ghosh and Jorg Bitzi♔geio will help us choose the best players available in the draft," Chennai Lions owners Harini Yadav and Karishma Yadav said in a joint statement.
UTT debutants Bengaluru Smashers made the first pick in Round 1 to bri🐎ng Sachin Shetty on board b🌊efore adding Slovenia's Vesna Ojstersek.
Team coaches
Bengaluru Smasheဣrs: Vesna 💮Ojstersek (Slovenia) and Sachin Shetty.
Chennai Lionꦗs: Jorg Bitzigeio (Germany) a♌nd Somnath Ghosh.
Dabang Delhi 𒉰TTC: Slobodan Grujic (Serbia) and A Muralidဣhara Rao.
𒆙U Mumba TT: Francisco San𒐪tos (Portugal) and Anshul Garg.
Puneri Pꦯaltan: Zoltan Batorfi (Hungary) and N Ravichandran.
Goa Challengers: Elena Timiܫna (Russia) and Parag Agrawal.
