LUCKNOW, April 29 -- Buoyed by the success of at least four of its paddlers, including Lucknow's Divyansh Srivastava, last season, Uttar Pradesh Table Tennis Association has decided to spread its wings as it plans to take up a series of activities in almost all districts of the state from the new season beginning July. Besides Divyansh, who won a gold, a silver and three bronzes in national and international events, Sarth Mishra (Ghaziabad), Pehal Gupta (Agra) and Avani Tripathi (Ghaziabad) also brought laurels to the state. A platform for around 500 paddlers and its units in 45 districts, UPTTA wants to conduct events in even the smallest of districts where spotting a talent will be extremely difficult. "This time, we are trying to cover almost all the districts. We have asked the Uttar Pradesh Sports Directorate to coordinate with us and allocate events. We will conduct them even in small districts to promote the game and spot talents," UPTTA director Arun Banerjee said on Monday. Banerjee added: "This season onwards, we will also conduct events for para-athletes and give them cash awards." "We are trying to organise events for para table tennis players. Last year, we held para-events in Lucknow. We are already felicitating our top players annually, and from this year we will give cash awards to para paddlers," he added. Meanwhile, the UP Cup, which was meant for the juniors in the past, will now be open for all age categories. Apart from this, given the increasing number of players in Uttar Pradesh, another ranking competition will be organised in the new season. "The new ranking event will give an additional opportunity to athletes to perform. Under this new rule, competitions will begin in June and the ranking events will be organised in Aligarh, Lucknow, Bareilly, Kanpur and Gorakhpur," he added. This year, the state championship will be held in Gautam Buddh Nagar. The events will be held in coordination with the UP Sports Directorate in Jhansi (sub- junior) in July, Gorakhpur (junior events) in August and at Rae Bareli (senior events) in September. The veteran ranking competitions will be held in Agra and Pilibhit; the state championship will be played in Prayagraj. "In Lucknow and Kanpur, contests will be organised with the aim of promoting para players. From this year, registration of all the players will be done online through District Table Tennis Association," the official added. Before the launch of the new season, UPTTA will be conducting a one-day seminar on racket control, under the guidance of ITTF-approved racket controller Amit Kumar Singh. This will be for all the coaches, especially those running academies, and umpires. All round performance by young Karan Singh helped favourites UP Timber Cricket Club (UPTCC) notch up a thrilling three-run over LDA Coaching Centre (LDACC) in the Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Memorial T-20 League, at the GCRG Ground here on Monday. In another match of the day, Life Care Cricket Club (LCCCC) defeated Youth Cricket Club (YCC) by four wickets. Singh first scored 42-ball 54, which contained three boundaries and two sixes, and helped UPTCC score 130/7 after being sent to bat first and then took 3/23 to restrict LDACC for 127/8 in reply. Atif too contributed 21 with three fours for the UPTC. In fact, UPTCC failed to capitalize early advantage and even after losing the first wicket at 36, they lost four quick wickets to be reduced to 5/66. Besides Singh, pacer Hasan Akhtar took 3/27, whereas Navneet Kumar and Anubhav Srivastava shared two wickets between them. The KD Singh Babu Memorial Society will be conducting the maiden edition of the Bula Ganguli Memorial Women's Hockey Tournament, starting Tuesday, at the National College Ground here. The six-day tournament will see the participation of teams like Lucknow Sports Hostel, SSB, SAI, and two teams from the National College....