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Achanta Sharath Kamal India ITTF: India’s Achanth Sharath Kamal and China’s Liu Shiwen were elected as joint chairmen of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Athletes Commission ahead of the ITTF summit to be held in Amman, Jordan on Friday. This is the first time that the ITTF Athletes Commission has two chairpersons – one female and one male. Both have been elected to lead the body, which is considered to be the voice of table tennis players in the federation.
ITTF President Petra Sörling said, “It is vitally important for our athletes to have strong, diverse voices for our federation to continue leading the way with the aim of keeping athletes at the center of the sports movement,” Xinhua reported.
Liu, 31, was a member of China’s gold medal-winning team at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and won a silver medal in mixed doubles at Tokyo 2020. She also won the women’s singles title at the Budapest 2019 World Championships, won 13 singles titles at the ITTF World and won the Women’s World Cup five times.
The 40-year-old Achant made a mark on the international stage when he won the men’s singles title at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Overall, he has seven gold, three silver and three bronze medals in the Games. Both Achant and Liu will become members of the ITTF’s executive committee. He will join South Korean Ryu Seung-min, the first vice-chairman of the IOC Athletes’ Commission, to represent the voice of the athletes.
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The two presidents will attend their first executive committee meeting, while all members of the Athletes’ Commission will attend the first-ever ITTF summit in Amman.
In addition to the election of Achant and Liu, the Athletes’ Commission elected two deputy chairs, Stefan Fegerl and Elizabeta Samara. Two chairs, one male athlete and one female athlete, were elected to ensure gender equality at the highest level of the commission. Other members of the Athletes Commission are Omar Assar, Ingela Lundbach, Jon Persson, Daniel Rios, Melissa Topper and Kelly Van Jones.
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