Beijing, 28 February. The World Table Tennis (WTT) made major changes in its handbook on Friday, under which Olympic gold medalists will be provided with special Olympic Champions Gold Card. Through this card, they will be able to get admission in WTT Grand Smash and WTT Champions directly.

Under new rules:

A maximum of five Olympic gold medalists per gender will be invited, which will include three of the team event, a player for another mixed doubles for the single.

Three gold cards will be given in the 64-Khiladi WTT Grand Smash, which will now be between the top 47 to 50 for the top 50 players.

Top 27 to 30 players for 32-Khiladi WTT Champions will now get direct entry on the basis of world rankings.

Grand Smash Single Main Draws and Admission time for qualifying will take place five to six weeks before the event. If an Olympic champion is currently not included in the world rankings, they will be given preference based on their final active rankings.

Apart from this, the minimum prize money of WTT Grand Smash, WTT Final, WTT Star Content and WTT Contender Competitions will also be increased. All these changes will be effective from April 1, and WTT Champions Incheon (1-6 April) will be the first tournament to implement this new rule.

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Dubey