"Lost to a Korean here in India, hope I can beat Koreans in World Championships at their home" - Sharath Kamal aims team qualification for Olympics 

Veteran Indian paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal shifts focus towards the World Team Table Tennis Championship scheduled in the next month to book an elusive Olympic quota for Paris.

Sharath, the World No. 99 in men's singles, failed to advance to the qualification round in the ongoing WTT Star Contender Goa in front of home fans. He lost to South Korea's Kang Dongso in a riveting contest despite having a two-set cushion. He squandered two match points in the fourth game, which would have sealed the tie for him.

Speaking exclusively to Sportskeeda after his match from Goa, the 41-year-old expressed remorse for not playing in the main draws in front of his supporters. He said:

"Nothing much, I played well. I had a couple of match points yesterday also, I was not able to convert those match points. I would have liked to play a longer tournament, especially in front of a home crowd with a lot of spectators and fans who are here to cheer. Unfortunate that it didn’t happen."

The World Team Table Tennis Championships will be held from February 16 to 25 at the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center in Busan, South Korea. Team India is drawn with South Korea, Poland, Chile, and New Zealand in Group 3. All the quarterfinalists in the World Championship will grab Olympic quotas.

Sharath Kamal, who will lead the Indian team's charge, aims for a sweet revenge against the hosts next month.

"I lost to a Korean here in India, I hope I can beat the Koreans in the World Championships at (their) home. We have them on their group," he said.

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"We know this is our chance to play in the Olympic Games" - Sharath Kamal

The team events for both men and women were replaced with the doubles in the Beijing Olympics 2008. India has never played a team event in either category in the last four editions.

Sharath Kamal, a four-time Olympian, has set his target for the team event with his singles qualification being the second priority.

"We just need to get ourselves together because the work is already done. We’ve been thinking about this for the last six months. We know this is our chance to play in the Olympic Games," the Indian stalwart said.

"We have really given a lot of thought prior to the Asian Games itself. After the Asian Games our next target was the World Championship in Korea, we’ve been working towards that. After the next week, we will all assemble in Bangalore for a training camp. From there we will be off to Korea," he further explained.

Top-ranked Indian player and reigning national champion Harmeet Desai, Commonwealth Games medallist Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, and youngsters Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah will be in the scheme of the Indian team, though the squads are yet to be announced by the Table Tennis Federation of India.

Sharath, however, mentioned that he isn't concerned about his qualification in the men's singles at the Paris Olympics. He was the only Indian player to reach Round 3 in men's singles at the Tokyo Olympics.

"I am not thinking about the individual qualification but with regards to myself individually have worked a lot in the recent times. Prepared for the World Championships. That is the reason why I played, usually I don’t play three tournaments. I wanted some amount of match practice," he said.

The Chennai-based paddler will hope to make the best out of the training camp at Sports Authority of India, Bengaluru ahead of the team's departure to South Korea.

This exclusive was written with inputs from Featured Columnist Maanas Upadhyay.