Following the successful introduction of the Table Tennis Review (TTR) technology at the World Tour Grand Finals in China last month, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has decided to implement the same at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and other major ITTF events.
The decision was made during the ITTF Executive Committee held in Delhi over the weekend.
The approval of the TTR was among the strategies adopted by the ITTF for the continued growth of the sport.
This introduction of TTR during the World Tour Grand Finals saw positive feedback from the top players, who were impressed with the ability to review the original decisions of umpires.
Despite the positive response, the ITTF would continue to enhance the system, including looking as ways to reduce the time spent between the player’s call to review and the final decision.
“With the tech trend already so prominent in sports, we felt it was important to implement a new technology that will ensure a fair competition for all the athletes, empowering them to challenge any decision made by the umpire. The benefits of using the TTR system are very positive and we can actually talk about an evolution of the sport of table tennis. We received very positive feedback from the players and we anticipate a major improvement in terms of the viewers’ experience going forwards,” said ITTF CEO Steve Dainton.
The ITTF has also approved for future World Team Table Tennis Championships events to be held in multiple venues.
The ITTF is in discussions with the Chinese Table Tennis Association (CTTA) about staging the 2022 World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals – the first under the new format – across multiple cities in China.
It is anticipated that the move would enable TV coverage of more matches during the competition, as well as increased fan engagement over multiple host cities across the country.
“The philosophy of the new expanded World Table Tennis Championships Finals has always been focused on increasing the global footprint of our sport’s biggest event. This is a format that will eventually integrate all our members and maximise exposure of the event. By providing relevant content in multiple locations and engaging with a larger community / audience in the host country, the 2022 World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals have a higher potential to ensure worldwide media coverage and achieve commercial success.
Due to the popularity of the sport, we believe that China is the ideal place to implement this new concept. Discussions have already been initiated with CTTA and they seem very positive,” said Dainton.
The ITTF is also looking to establish a future ‘Home of Table Tennis’ and is seeking interest from cities around the world to become the future Headquarters in order to centralise the ITTF’s workforce and drive the growth of table tennis.
The Executive Committee
was also updated on the significant progress made regarding World Table Tennis
– the entity that will run the ITTF’s commercial business in the future.
The WTT event structure, branding and vision for the sport are close to being
finalised and due to be released before the 2020 World Team Table Tennis
Championships in March.
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