ITTF Executive Committee looking to reschedule World Team TT Championships

… after June update on COVID-19

An outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in South Korea has caused the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) to postpone the 2020 staging of the World Team Table Tennis Championships, which were scheduled to be held in Busan, South Korea from March 22 to March 29, 2020.

However, the ITTF Executive Committee met on Thursday 4th June 2020 to discuss the latest situation for international table tennis amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Upon receiving a comprehensive update report from the COVID-19 Task Force, which was set up to monitor the global situation closely, and after deliberations with key stakeholders, here are the key outcomes reached during the meeting:
The Executive Committee agreed to ask the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of Busan to look for new dates to host the Hana Bank 2020 World Team Table Tennis Championships in the early months of 2021 due to the fact it would be unlikely that the majority of teams would be able to travel to Korea Republic in September 2020.
The ITTF will go ahead with holding its AGM on 28th September 2020. If the World Championships are postponed, the AGM will be conducted online. Once the situation regarding the World Championships is confirmed, and with the postponement of the Olympic and Paralympic Games also in mind, the ITTF will look at an overhaul of its original 2021 calendar planning in the coming weeks.
In terms of the 2020 calendar, the ITTF remains hopeful of staging full open international events in the last quarter of 2020. The ITTF is also investigating the possibility of holding alternative, regionally based and invitational events earlier in 2020.
After a thorough consultation process, with the active participation of the ITTF Athletes Commission, the Executive Committee ratified the qualification system adjustments for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Once confirmed by the IOC and IPC respectively, these qualification systems will be formally announced.
The Guyana women’s senior national table tennis team were 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 Jody Ann Blake, among others.
The tournament would have constituted a key learning experience for these Guyanese players, as it was to be their first experience of representing the nation on such a stage.
The Executive Committee through its foundation, together with World Table Tennis (WTT), will be providing financial support for National Associations, players and foundation projects affected by the COVID-19 crisis.
The ITTF Executive Committee will meet again on 23rd June 2020 and will continue to provide further updates on all upcoming decisions in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.