With less than two days to go for the Ultimate Table Tennis Season 3, the teams are in the final lap leading up to the opening day.

Four new teams will make an appearance this season, one of them being Goa Challengers.

Goa Challengers is co-owned by Mr. Shrinivas Dempo, chairman of the Dempo Group, and Mr. Vivek Bhargava, CEO of the DAN Performance Group. 

Mr. Bhargava has been involved in the UTT since the inaugural season, finishing runners up in Season 1 with the Shaze Challengers, and played a key role in the formation of this team. 

The Challengers have experienced coaches in the form of Arup Basak and Bettine Vriesekoop, who are the Indian and foreign coaches respectively. Bettine is a Dutch Olympian and European champion and will be a part of UTT for the first time.

The player draft had some more luck in store for The Challengers, as they got the first pick at the event. With no hesitation, they picked up UTT’s highest ranked athlete, Cheng I-Ching, the paddler from Chinese Taipei who is currently ranked 8th in the world. 

They also have Archana Kamath and Shruti Amrute who are current National Champions in the senior and youth categories respectively.

The male paddlers also come well endorsed, with Amalraj Anthony leading the charge for the Challengers in the men’s category. The National Champion is joined by Spanish National champion and 2019 World Championship runner-up (Men’s Doubles) -- Alvaro Robles. 

Siddesh Pande completes the squad for the challengers, as the young paddler heads into the UTT on the back of a fruitful 2018 in the Youth and Senior National Championships.

Goa Challengers seem to be a well-balanced and dominant side on paper and will be tested by a formidable-looking RP-SG Mavericks Kolkata outfit on the July 27 in their opening fixture.

To quote Mr. Dempo as he signed-off after the player draft, “May the best team win, and I think we have the best team.”