ITTF further postpones World Team Table Tennis Championship

…Guyanese players set to participate
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.

The tournament was rescheduled for staging from September 27 to October 4, 2020. The ITTF has been working in close cooperation with the Korea Table Tennis Association (KTTA), led by President Ryu Seung-min, and representatives of the city of Busan in order to establish the new provisional dates and also have other optional dates to stage the World Championships, if necessary.
The most significant annual table tennis event and the richest in terms of history of the sport, the Hana Bank 2020 World Team Table Tennis Championships were among the many ITTF events to be postponed this year owing to the COVID-19 public health crisis.
Once the extent of the crisis became evident, an emergency ITTF Executive Committee meeting had first proposed provisional dates of June 21-28, 2020 while maintaining that further back-up plans may be required if the pandemic persisted.
On March 29, 2020, the ITTF Executive Committee held a follow-up meeting to confirm that new dates would be announced for the Hana Bank 2020 World Team Table Tennis Championships, in light of the fact that all currently planned ITTF events and activities are suspended until June 30, 2020.
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.
Now with new provisional dates proposed, the ITTF and KTTA continue to monitor the situation, with the priority being placed on the health and safety of players, coaches, fans, and officials.