The 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games have just ended, and the Japanese table tennis team has already begun to lay out the 2024 Paris Olympic Games! Not long ago, the Japanese Table Tennis Association officially announced an important decision, that is, they will hold the Top 32 Cup from March 5 to 6, and the results of this event will also provide athletes with selection points for the Paris Olympic Games.
In recent years, the Japanese team has begun to reflect on the past "only world ranking" competition selection principle, and gradually learn the method of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, which can indeed be said to be precautionary, which has created a certain pressure on zhang Benzhihe and Ito Mimachi, who are ranked high. However, some fans have questioned this: is it too early to start saving points now?
Friends who pay attention to table tennis know that in recent years, the Olympic selection mechanism of the Japanese team is very simple, that is, the world's highest ranking athlete in the team has qualified for the competition.
For example, the Tokyo Olympics is Tomokazu Changmoto, Takashi Niwa, Ito Mimako, Ishikawa Yoshijun won singles and team tickets, the third place Mizutani Hayabusa, Hirano Mizumi yu did not have a chance to singles, mixed doubles depending on the situation, only substitutes do not look at the ranking, Yukiya Utada, Hayata Hina was selected by virtue of the national championship singles champion, but if you can't play, you are just a spectator.
How to say it, the method of looking at the ranking completely is not without advantages, at least it seems to be a very transparent mechanism, but the disadvantages are also obvious.
On the one hand, the accumulation of world rankings is not completely reasonable, the higher the ranking, the more opportunities for more competitions, the more you participate in the competition, the more you can get points, which makes the gap wider and wider, can not fully reflect the comparison of athletes' strength; on the other hand, the world ranking itself also has a lag, especially during the epidemic The number of competitions is significantly reduced, which affects the significance of the ranking.
In addition, the Japan Table Tennis Association has not been able to adjust the Olympic selection policy according to the actual situation, for example, the Tokyo Olympic Games was originally scheduled to be held in 2020, when the upward momentum of Hayata Hina has clearly surpassed Hirano Miyu; and the competition was postponed to 2021, Hirano Miyu is still not improving, so many people think that it is reasonable to take her qualification and change to Hayata Hina.
However, the Japanese team has determined the Olympic roster as early as January 2020, and there has been no change in the following year, some people think that this is a respect for the selection system that has been announced before, but some people feel that this is a rigid implementation of the rules, but it is now certain that the Japanese themselves do not intend to do so.
In fact, as early as March 2021, the Japanese Table Tennis Association has announced the decision to reform the Olympic selection criteria, and their reform direction is to align with the Chinese team, comprehensive world competitions, domestic competition results to "score" athletes, which can also be seen that the national table tennis method is still relatively scientific.
But because it is very close to the opening of the Tokyo Olympic Games, the new plan for Japanese table tennis can only be temporarily shelved and saved until the 2024 Paris Olympic cycle, and now is the time.
It is reported that the Japan Top 32 Cup will not only affect the Olympic selection, but also will have an impact on their competition in 2022 for two other important events, that is, the Chengdu Team World Table Tennis Championships and the Hangzhou Asian Games - athletes who win the singles championship will directly receive tickets to participate in these two events, while the singles final eight will participate in the national qualifiers in April, and it is possible to continue to compete for the Asian Games qualification.
Obviously, the defeat of Mizutani Hayabusa/Ito Mishimasa and the victory of Xu Xin/Liu Shiwen and the Olympic mixed doubles gold medal have brought great encouragement to the Japanese table tennis scene, so they are determined to achieve better results in the next Olympic Games, but will the Chinese team still give them a chance? Let's sit back and wait for the peak showdown of the year after tomorrow!