88 men and 80 women at the tournament in Istanbul

European Qualification Tournament for the Games of the XXXI Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro,

The European Table Tennis Union is pleased to announce entries for the European Qualification Tournament for the Games of the XXXI Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro 2016 have been received from 37 National Olympic Committees.

88 men and 80 women have been confirmed by their Associations for the tournament in Istanbul from 6th to 10th April.

ETTU President RONALD KRAMER said: ‘the changes to the Olympic Qualification system have created a very strong event with the best European players participating’.

The system of play will be as follows:

Preliminary Stage groups

Men – 16 groups of 4 or 5 players, total 72

Women – 16 groups of 4 players, total 64

Stage 1 knock-out

Men – 16 seeds and 48 qualifiers, total 64

Women- 16 seeds and 48 qualifiers, total 64

8 men and 8 women will qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games

Stage 2 knock-out

Men – 56 players

Women – 56 players

2 men and 2 women will qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games

The winners of the European Games singles events (men Dimitrij Ovtcharov GER, women Li Jiao NED) in Baku, Azerbaijan, 13th-19th June 2015, are direct qualified for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games