Deputy President, International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), Africa, and Vice President, ITTF, Wahid Oshodi, will lead the body’s World Ranking Working Group (WRWG) tasked with bringing innovation to the ranking style of the sport.

The WRWG comprises 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).

The ITTF said, yesterday, that its executive committee has approved thelatest propositionformulated by the WRWG, including 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 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. (The Guardian)