The ITTF January ranking is the basis for the nomination of twenty male and twenty female direct qualifiers for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Totally 64 men and 64 women will qualify for the Olympic main draw in their respective single events. Forty players each will qualify via Continental Qualification tournaments, one player each will be invited by the Tripartite Commission and three men and women will receive the “Olympic ticket” at the Final World Qualification Tournament to be held in Budapest, Hungary from 8th to 11th May 2008.
No Tie between PERSSON and SAIVE
The decision for the Men’s Singles event was very close. Sweden’s Jörgen PERSSON and Belgium’s Jean-Michel SAIVE both had 11957 points and were ex aequo on the twentieth place. In case of a so-called tie, SAIVE and PERSSON would have been obliged to play a match against each other for the direct qualification according to the recent decision in Palo Alto of the ITTF Olympic Committee.
A view on the detailed ranking however shows that PERSSON has 11957.50 and Saive only has 11957.25 points. There is no tie between the two players. Jean-Michel SAIVE can still qualify for the Olympic Games via the Continental or the Final World Qualification.
Sixth Qualification for European Legends
The first Olympic appearance of Table Tennis was in Seoul 1988. Croatia’s Zoran PRIMORAC (38), Sweden’s Jörgen PERSSON (41), Belgium’s Jean-Michel SAIVE (38) and Germany’s Jörg ROSSKOPF (38) participated already five times. Beijing will be the sixth time for PRIMORAC and PERSSON unless their respective National Olympic Committees do not select them.
SAIVE and ROSSKOPF on their part still have a way to go. Whilst SAIVE’s prospects are rather good, ROSSKOPF has hard concurrence within his country. Owing to the quota per National Olympic Committee only one more player beside Timo BOLLand Dimitrij Ovtcharov will represent Germany in Beijing. Bastian Steger and Christian SüSS might become the spoilsports for ROSSKOPF.
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