Guwahati, September 25: Never tired of innovations, the competition department of the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) has introduced the online result module at the 11Sports National Ranking (East Zone) Table Tennis Championships, which kicked off at the R.G. Barua Sports Complex’s Indoor Stadium here today.

With the online result module, now available on TTFI website, all table tennis lovers can get instant detailed qualifying results from the group stages. Once the first stage gets over, the system will automatically update the league chart and this will enable players to know who, as the group leader, has made it to the main draw. The system also takes care of breaking the tie, if any, in groups.

After the successful completion of the online results in group stages, the next step for the competition department to introduce it for the main draw. “We could have done that too, but we want to make sure the system works flawlessly in group stages before we take the next plunge,” said competition manager N. Ganeshan.

Ganeshan, a member of the URC of ITTF, said that after the group stages the system will produce the list of qualifiers which the referees used to do manually. “We want to minimize the workload on referees. Besides, we can make the group charts made through the system soon after the entries close and before the referees arrive for a tournament. Once they are uploaded on our site, all participants would be in a position to see all details even before they arrive at the venue for the matches,” he added.

TTFI, which is open to new ideas, encourages and supports the competition department to the core, had been trying its best to make things transparent and easy for the players. “When we introduced the online entry system, there were some initial problems with state associations. But today, every state unit is familiar with the system and we receive entries through online,” said M.P. Singh, Secretary General of TTFI.

Taking it further, he said, TTFI is trying out the online result module. “We hope everything goes right and people respond to it. But without full cooperation from state units, we cannot present anything new. The result module can be put to use more efficiently, provided all states send entries by the due date. Any delayed entry means, preparation of group charts will also get delayed,” he added.

The best thing about the current system is once the competition department is able to introduce results from main draw onwards, the system will take care of players’ ranking points and positions automatically. “Once we link every aspect of the result to module, at the end of every championships ranking points will be updated against each player which, ultimately, will help seeding of players for the subsequent events,” said Ganeshan.

“We will also introduce it in the national championships once make it foolproof,” he added.

Meanwhile, the group matches in both men and women singles got underway this morning. With three rounds in each section to be played today, it’s very hectic for the players. At the end of the day, two qualifiers from each of 44 groups (men) and women (31) will join the 16 men and eight women seeded players, who have been given direct entry into the main draw, which will be played on a knockout basis.

Fortunately, most group leaders had, more or less, ensured their stage 2 berth with wins in the first two rounds. A clear picture about the second qualifier will emerge later tonight.