Ai Fukuhara and Kasumi Ishikawa both qualified for the women’s singles at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics based on the latest rankings released by the International Table Tennis Federation on Thursday.
Jun Mizutani and Koki Niwa also secured their berths in the men’s singles as they met the qualifying criteria of being among the top 22 in the world rankings, excluding players who had already booked their tickets through continental qualifiers.
Ishikawa remained at No. 4 on the women’s list, while Fukuhara dropped one place to seventh. Mizutani moved up one place to sixth, while Niwa dropped from 15th to 19th.
Those four players also qualified for the team event along with Maharu Yoshimura and Mima Ito, who, like Fukuhara in Athens in 2000, will be making her Olympic debut at 15 years old.
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