Indians struggle

Indian paddlers are hardly having things their way at the World Team Championships in Bremen. While the women are sliding inexorably towards exit from Division One, the men are just about keeping their hopes alive in their efforts to finish around the 25th spot from Division Two and thereby gain promotion to the top tier.

Having finished sixth and last in their group in Division One, the women paddlers today lost in the play-offs for the 13th-20th spot to Italy and will now have to vie for the 21st-24th spot. If they lose there as well and then the relegation play-off, then it8217;s goodbye to the top division.

As for the men, they went down 1-3 to Bulgaria in their last group league match and managed to squeeze into the pre-quarter-final stage in Division Two. They finished behind Singapore and Bulgaria. A tough contest was in the offing against the East European nation and so it proved. India will now be randomly pitted against a third-placed team from any of the other three groups.