ITTF comes to decision concerning various table tennis tournaments
An outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in South Korea has caused the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) to postpone the 2020 staging of the World Teams Table Tennis Championships, which were scheduled to be held in Buscan, South Korea from March 22 to March 29.
The Guyana women’s senior national table tennis team: Chelsea Edghill, JodyAnn Blake, Trenace Lowe and Natalie Cummings
The tournament was rescheduled for staging from June 21 to June 28.
As of Sunday, March 29, 2020, the ITTF met and made the following decisions concerning various tournaments that were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The ITTF Executive Committee reached the following decisions:
Suspension of all currently planned ITTF events and activities that involve international travel until June 30, 2020.
Proposal of new dates for the Hana Bank 2020 World Team Table Tennis Championships, to be announced in the coming week.
Freezing of ITTF Ranking lists as of March 2020 and further evaluation of all implications related to the postponement of events, travel restrictions and other complications, with scope for further decisions on potentially necessary adjustments.
Adjustments to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games qualification pathways will be worked on after the dates of the Games have been decided.
The ITTF has also been working hard to manage the 2020 finances, with the Executive Committee agreeing to reduce their expenses and senior staff offering to take a salary reduction, as the ITTF looks into other areas to save overall costs.
The Guyana Women’s Senior National Table Tennis Team was invited by the ITTF to participate in the tournament, and the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) had already nominated the following key players to represent Guyana: Chelsea Edghill, Trenace Lowe, Natalie Cummings, Pricilla Greaves and JodyAnn Blake, among others.
The tournament would have constituted a key learning experience for these Guyanese players, as it was to be their first experience at representing the nation on such a stage.
Another follow-up meeting will be held on April 15, 2020 to further evaluate the situation.
