International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) president Adam Sharara has denied that table tennis doubles will be dumped at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games, but he admitted there will be changes with the doubles event, which would likely be replaced by a team event.
Agence France-Presse quotes Sharara as saying at the world championships in Shanghai after the ITTF’s annual general meeting, “the Olympic team event will include both singles and doubles matches”.
According to Agence France-Presse, last year the sport’s governing body proposed replacing doubles with a team event at the 2008 Games to make the sport more of a spectacle.
Sharara said, “maybe it includes four singles matches and one doubles, or three singles and two doubles. We will decide it at a later stage”.
