On 18 April, CTTA releases the rankings of the top 50 Chinese men and women players. The rankings are based on the singles results (and results of singles matches in team competitions) at international and domestic competitions at both the senior and junior category, as well as table tennis leagues (including CTTSL, division 1 and division 2). Olympic champion as well as captain of the Chinese national team, Ma Long and Ding Ning ranked first.
It seems as though the Chinese table tennis team has gone through quite a few changes since the reform introduced by the General Administration of Sport of China. Following the newly launched selection policy announced in this January and adjustments of the national coaching team, CTTA has released a new ranking recently.
The newly developed ranking system is considered as part of the reform which makes the selection process fairer, more objective and more transparent. It ranked athletes according to their singles results (and singles results in team competitions) at senior and junior competitions from April 2017 to March 2018, including the Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup, World Tour, Asian Games, Asian Championships, Asian Cup, Chinese National Games, Chinese Table Tennis League (CTTSL, Division 1 and Division 2), Junior World Championships, Asian Junior & Cadet Championships, Chinese Nationals, Junior Chinese Nationals, Cadet Chinese Nationals etc.
The announcement did not mention whether the ranking system is a trial implementation or a permanent policy (the new selection policy is a 1-year trial implementation), nor did it explain how important the rankings are to the selection process. However, we can presume the ranking system is closely related to the new selection policy which offers high-ranked non-CNT athletes and U21athletes chances to compete in international competitions like the World Tour. The series of reform will definitely switch things up for all of the Chinese table tennis athletes going forward but we have to wait and see to what extent will it affect the selection of the Olympic Team in 2020. As over the years, the Chinese team did have concrete policies for selecting participants of WTTC but the decision-making for the Olympic squad often involves a comprehensive consideration and discussion among the Chinese national team coaches behind the closed door.
About the New Selection Policy
CTTA announced a new selection policy for international competitions on 5 January 2018 to prepare a strong team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. The announcement stated a list of criteria for qualifying to international competitions such as World Championships, World Cup, World Tour etc. Read the following article for further details about the policy.
In Translation: CTTA Announces New Selection Policy
The following is ranking and points of the top 50 men and women in China.
Men's Ranking
Women's Ranking
Where are Qin Zhijian and Ma Lin now after the coaching shakeup?
ReplyDeleteThere are no official announcement about the consequences of Qin Zhijian and Ma Lin. So I am not going to talk much about it, even though there are rumors spreading around. It seems that Ma Lin is enjoying his time with his family as shown on his Weibo while Qin Zhijian has been keeping a low profile.
DeleteThis is great opportunity for the top 20.
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What would be an interesting article is on what it cost to run China's table tennis
organization. Include everything! The super league, travel, salaries, etc. The number must be huge!
Although I am also interested in the 'big numbers', I believe CTTA will not disclose anything about it. It would stir up many controversy whatever they put up because there are simply too many stakeholders who have different expectations on the 'numbers'. 'Big numbers' aside, let's focus on table tennis and wish for some great performances from the athletes.
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