KARACHI, Dec 26: Wapda and Habib Bank, top seeds in the men’s and women’s team events, had a smooth sailing on the opening day of the 43rd National table tennis championship which got underway at the Islamia Club’s Majeed Khan on Monday.
Wapa was top seeded in the 14-team men team event after defending champion, Allied Bank, stayed away as its sports division ceased to exist.
Three other teams Army, PTV and OGDC, who have the playing rights, were also not competing in the country’s premier championship.
Wapda took a flying start in the men’s team event when they thrashed Railways 3-0.
Habib Bank, inflicted 3-0 defeat on Islamabad in the women team event opener. In the other matches, Sindh ‘A’ beat HEC 3-0, Punjab ‘A’ downed Sindh ‘B’ 3-0 while Wapda beat Punjab ‘B’ 3-0.
As many as 10 teams- Balochistan, Habib Bank, HEC, Islamabad, NWFP, Railways, Punjab, PWD, Wapda and Sindh were competing in the championship which is being held in the city after 13 years.