Deputy President, ITTF Africa and Vice President, ITTF, Wahid Oshodi of Nigeria has been appointed as the chair of the ITTF World Ranking Working Group (WRWG) with the sole aim of bringing innovation to the ranking style of the sport.
The WRWG is made of nine members representing all the ITTF’s diverse interests and expertise with two representatives from the Athletes’ Commission (Dana Cechova of the Czech Republic and seven-time Olympian Jean-Michel Saive of Belgium), the ITTF Technical Commissioner (Graeme Ireland of Australia), WTT Managing Director (Matthew Pound), as well as vastly experienced representatives from Continental Federations and Member Associations (Li Xiaoxia of China, Lincoln Yasuda of Brazil and Richard Prause of Germany), the ITTF World Ranking Manager (Javier Angulo) while Oshodi as ITTF Executive Vice President chairs the group.
However, the latest proposition formulated by the WRWG has been approved by ITTF Executive Committee and this includes the total removal of the “initial points”, the extension of the validity of all points gained during 2021 senior events, and the restriction of the number of youth events counting towards the senior ranking.
The new changes in the world ranking took effect Tuesday, May 3, and Oshodi believes the new ranking is now more representative of the current level of players.
“Matters relating to player rankings are very important in our sport and I feel quite confident that the WRWG will have a great impact in improving and resolving historic issues surrounding the Rankings,” Oshodi said.
“After long and serious consideration, the WRWG decided to recommend the removal of the “initial points” for a variety of practical reasons. The abnormal situation brought upon the world by the Covid-19 pandemic prevented us from staging planned events, and the “initial points” allowed us to keep the World Rankings alive, but some of these “initial points” included points from events as far back as 2018. As the pandemic subsides, we have been able to stage more events around the world.
“The general feeling among players, fans, and ourselves was that the Rankings were not truly representative of the current standard of the players. Some players making rapid progress over the last year did not see their performances being accurately reflected in the Rankings. Therefore, it was time to remove these “initial points”. I believe a few other International Federations have taken similar steps as ours.
“We are confident that the performances of players in tournaments will have an immediate impact on their Ranking thus allowing them to climb up the Rankings, consequently giving them the opportunity to take part in the top tier events; with this change, performances in the many upcoming events will have the importance they deserve in the Rankings and will generate some interesting movements in the following weeks and months,” he said.
On possible changes to the World Ranking Regulation this year, Oshodi said: “The pandemic forced us to make exceptional adjustments to the rankings, which alongside the current difficulties to host international events, resulted in a ranking system that has not been properly and fully evaluated as yet. We also introduced some big changes in 2021 with the arrival of World Table Tennis. We will spend the rest of this year only reviewing the effect of these changes as well as looking holistically at the Ranking Regulations, points for events, and all other factors relevant to the Rankings.
“With the upcoming Olympics qualification, we must be careful to provide stability for all Member Associations and athletes to enable them to plan their season with the safety of having Rules and Regulations that they know will not change too often,” he added.
