A record of 50 teams, including six from Africa, will participate in the badminton tournament at the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games, an official said on Friday.

The wider participation was a result of the development of the sport and a reform by the World Badminton Federation (WBF), said Ren Chunhui, executive vice director of the badminton competing venue, which is located in the Beijing University of Technology.

There were 32 teams for the Athens Olympic Games fours years ago, and only one, or South Africa, came from the African continent, according to Ren.

The WBF has launched a new rule which stipulates that a country or region could have at most three shuttlers for one event and all of them must be among the world's top four.

The new rule eventually deprived seats from badminton superpowers and benefited other teams.

A total of 173 athletes are expected to fight for five Olympic titles during the nine-day event, with one from Zambia to become the last athlete whose entry to the Games was confirmed.

The men's singles will have 41 players, women's singles 47, and the men's, women's and mixed doubles will have 16 pairs respectively.

The Games will take place from Aug. 8 to 24, 2008 under the slogan "One World, One Dream", featuring the 28 summer sports on the Olympic program. A total of 10,708 athletes are expected to compete in 302 events at 31 venues in Beijing and six venues in Qingdao, Hong Kong, Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenyang and Qinhuangdao.

(Xinhua News Agency July 26, 2008)