Syndrela Das joins Payas Jain, Ankur Bhattacharjee as Table Tennis trio enter in TOPS Development Scheme

Seventeen-year-old Kolkata paddler Syndrela Das has been added to the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) Development programme after a series of impressive performances, strengthening her prospects ahead of the 2026 Asian Games.

Das recently enjoyed a breakthrough outing at the Asian Youth Championships in Thailand, where she claimed a silver medal in the girls' doubles and a bronze in the singles event. The results have helped underline her emergence as one of India's promising young table tennis players.

Her rise has been rapid. In 2023, Das completed a rare treble of National Ranking age-group titles, winning the U-15, U-17 and U-19 singles crowns. She subsequently stepped up to senior-level competition, making her senior nationals debut in 2025.

Earlier this year, TOPS introduced a dedicated development group for table tennis players aged between 14 and 17, with the objective of developing India's next generation and building greater depth ahead of the 2030 Commonwealth Games and 2036 Olympics. Das was initially part of that initiative and has now moved into the TOPS Development category.

She joins fellow Indian paddlers Payas Jain and Ankur Bhattacharjee, who compete in men's doubles, within the development pathway.

India's 10-member table tennis contingent for the 2026 Asian Games features Das alongside Sreeja Akula, Diya Chitale, Yashaswini Ghorpade, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Manush Shah, Manav Thakkar, Harmeet Desai and Payas Jain.

Meanwhile, India's leading-ranked women's player Manika Batra has received approval from the Mission Olympic Cell for financial assistance to compete at WTT Contender events in Bulgaria and Kazakhstan in September.