IPC visit to Ostrava advances Para table tennis classification reform
IPC observers spent four days inside Ostrava’s classification room, testing how Para table tennis will run 20 new and eight reviewed athlete cases under the 2025 code.
Two members of the International Paralympic Committee’s classification department spent 16-19 June inside the classification room at the ITTF World Para Future Ostrava 2026, turning the tournament into a live test of how Para table tennis will handle its next rules cycle. Led by Tea Cisic, the visitors watched the physical and medical assessment, the technical assessment and the posterior observation assessment done during competition, a sequence that sits at the heart of whether athletes are placed in the right class and whether those placements are trusted.
That trust matters because classification decides who competes against whom. If the system is seen as consistent and transparent, athletes can enter events knowing the class structure is being applied the same way across countries and competitions. The ITTF said the IPC observers also used the visit for strategic discussions about the road ahead, which pushed Ostrava beyond a standard tournament stop and into a working session on implementation under the new 2025 IPC Classification Code.
The scale of the work in Ostrava underscored that point. Three classifiers from Poland, Türkiye and Great Britain worked with the ITTF Classification Manager to classify 20 new players and review another eight, a heavy load for a single event and a reminder that reform is not an abstract policy exercise. Each decision affects eligibility, competitive balance and the credibility of results for players who spend years building toward a class that matches their impairment and playing profile.
Dr. Emre Baskan, an elected member of the ITTF Para Committee, said the IPC visit gave the sport a valuable opportunity to review how classification is carried out, and that the observers stayed open, constructive and engaged throughout the process. Pablo Perez, the ITTF Para Table Tennis Events and Classification Manager, said the main topic was how to implement the new IPC code and added that the project will require real energy from the federation. The visit also tied classification reform to the ITTF’s Constitutional Implementation Programme and its wider governance overhaul, linking athlete welfare, regulatory confidence and the sport’s long-term credibility in one of para table tennis’s busiest competitive settings.
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