Photo courtesy of ITTF

A new format

Table Tennis at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will for the first time include a teams event. The doubles events have been dropped to accomodate the new format. This has been a controversial decision with many people believing the decision was made to cut the number of medals China can win. As each country can only enter one team, China can only win one of the 3 medals on offer in the teams event. In the past, China has often won more than one medal in the doubles events. However the ITTF has denied that this is the reason for the change, but instead saying that it will provide more appeal to audiences around the world.

Below are the details of the qualification process for Table Tennis at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Athlete Quota

There will be 86 men and 86 women (172 athletes) competing in Table Tennis at the Beijing 2008 Olympics. A maximum of 3 men and 3 women will be allowed to compete for each Country.

Singles Qualification

For both the Men’s and Women’s singles, there will be 64 athletes who will qualify for the main draw as follows:

• 20 - based on ITTF World Ranking, with a maximum of 2 players per country
• 40 - through the Continental qualification system
• 01 - Tripartite Commission invitation place
• 01 - Host Nation direct entry
• 02 - Final World qualification event
• 64 - Total with a maximum of 3 players from the same country

Preliminary rounds, in addition to the main draw of 64, may be necessary in Singles events to accommodate the total number of qualified athletes if the Final World Qualification Tournament qualifies more than 2 players because the Team Quota of 22 places is not fully utilised.

ITTF World Rankings

The top 20 players based on the ITTF World Rankings released in January 2008 will qualify with a maximum of 2 players per country.

Continental Qualification

Players will qualify through continental qualification events that will be held between July 2007 and April 2008, with the 40 places being made up from the following regions:

• 6 from Africa
• 11 from Asia
• 11 from Europe
• 6 from Latin America
• 3 from North America
• 3 from Oceania

Tripartite Commission (IOC-ANOC-ITTF) Invitation places

One place in men’s singles and one place in women’s singles shall be used by the IOC-ANOC-ITTF Tripartite Commission to allocate Invitation places, in accordance with the general process of the Tripartite Commission Invitations.

Host Nation

The host nation receives one automatic qualification into both singles events if not already qualified through ranking or by continental qualification.

If the host nation has already qualified through ranking or by continental qualification, then 1 additional place will be added to the final world qualification event.

Final World Qualification Event

The top 2 players at the World Qualification Tournament will qualify for the Singles event. Entries to the World Qualification Tournament will be limited to players who have otherwise not
qualified by the ITTF World Ranking or by continental qualification. Countries may only enter the same number of athletes as qualification places remaining, within the maximum number of 3 per Country.

The number of qualification places for the Singles events from this competition may be increased if the continental qualification allocation of 40 players is not reached, or if the host nation does not use the automatic qualification or if the team quota of 22 players is not fully utilised.

Teams Event

There will be 16 Men’s and 16 Women’s teams made up as follows:

• 6 - The top team from each continent (Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, Oceania)
• 1 host nation automatic qualification
• 9 remaining highest ranked teams (10 if host nation has already qualified)

A player in a team does not have to have qualified for the Singles event, however each team must have a player who has qualified for the Singles event. As there is a quota of 86 Men and 86 Women, if there is not 22 players in the teams event who are not qualified in the singles, then additional places will be made available at the final world qualifying event for athletes to qualify for the singles. In this case there will be preliminary rounds before the main draw.