TEHRAN – Iran’s female table tennis team has moved up 14 places to 35th position in the latest ranking by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).
The position is a first ever for Iranian women in the global table tennis ranking. It comes after the Iranian team finished ninth in an Asian competition tournament to qualify for the global table tennis championship.
Iranian female table tennis players are also planned to participate in the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games in China.
The Games were originally scheduled for September this year, but organizers postponed them in May as China tried to stamp out a large Covid resurgence in several parts of the country. The event will now be held in Hangzhou from September 23 to October 8, 2023, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) said.
Hangzhou lies less than 200 kilometers from the country’s biggest city Shanghai, which endured a months-long lockdown earlier this year as part of the ruling Communist Party’s zero-tolerance approach to the virus.
The Hangzhou organizing committee vowed to “present a wonderful and marvellous sports and cultural event with Chinese characteristics” in a statement confirming the new dates.