(by Steve Hopkins)
A few months ago, the International Table Tennis Federation announced an updated structure for the ITTF World Para Circuit to begin in 2025. The World Para Circuit events are now divided into three distinct tiers: Future, Challenger, and Elite. The first event under the new structure will begin next week in Lignano, Italy, a “Future Tier” event.
The Future Tier events are designed to help develop and launch emerging para table tennis talents. As the ITTF has stated, these will be “designed as a development point for emerging talents to hone their skills on the international stage and build their ranking”.
The Challenger Tier provides a higher level of competition and intensity. The World Para Circuit expects eight Challenger events in 2025, with each competition helping to build the sport and showcase its athletes. As described, each event in this tier “promises to create big stories and develop exciting rivalries”.
In the Elite Tier, fans will see the best players. The ITTF description is that these events will be “huge showdowns, moments of pure magic and exhilarating competition are all guaranteed”.
American Paralympic Jenson Van Emburgh commented on the new structure: “I think the new Para Circuit Structure is something that we definitely needed to encourage younger players to play future tournaments and the top players to play the elite tournaments to face each more than just one or two times per year. It will also allow top players to not worry about losing so many ranking points just from one tournament.” Another great American Paralympian Tahl Leibovitz added that the three tier Para Circuit will be “very good for the future of para table tennis”.
Like the ITTF and WTT system that we are all familiar with for professional able bodied players, each ITTF World Para Circuit event now carries significant weight, with ranking points awarded based upon event results. Once earned, points will be held for a year, allowing for the cumulative ranking to show all points accumulated over the previous year.
Next week’s Future Tier tournament in Lignano is the first of many events. Another Future Tier event will be played in Costa Brava (Spain) later this month. Two additional Future Tier events will occur in April as well, one in Lahti Finland and another in Amman Jordan. Challenger Tier events will be played in March in Poland and April in Brazil and Montenegro. And, of course, continental championships and other larger events will be played later in the year.
A special note is that the US will host one of the six Elite events this year. The event will be in August in Spokane, Washington. In fact, an ITTF World Para Future will be held from August 6-8 and it will be followed immediately by an ITTF World Para Elite event to be held from August 9-13.
Big plans for the ITTF World Para Circuit in 2025.
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