December 22, the International Table Tennis Federation officially announced that due to the increase in confirmed cases of COVID-19 in South Korea in recent days, the Executive Committee of the International Table Tennis Federation, together with representatives of various intercontinental associations, decided to cancel the 2020 International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships.
Earlier, Yoo Seung-min, president of the Korean Table Tennis Association, received a notice from the South Korean Disease Control and Prevention Agency that large-scale international sports events would not be allowed in the coming months.
Therefore, everyone agreed to make this extremely difficult and sad decision, which is also the first time that the World Table Tennis Championships have been cancelled since World War II.
The team World Table Tennis Championships, originally scheduled for March 2020, in Busan, South Korea, have been postponed three times due to the impact of the epidemic. The International Table Tennis Federation originally hoped that the event could be held in February 2021. Due to the deteriorating epidemic situation in South Korea and the world, this difficult decision has been made to this day.
The 2021 event calendar also includes the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, so it is impossible to postpone the event for the fourth time. In addition, the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships will be held after the Olympic Games. Details of the event are being finalized and will be announced in January next year.
The local organizing committee of Busan asked the International Table Tennis Federation to consider letting them host the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships or another World Championships-level event.
In addition, the Executive Committee adopted the 2021 World Rankings Program proposed by the International Table Tennis Federation World Rankings Working Group.
The ranking documents will be released later this week along with the calendar of events leading up to the 2021 Olympics. Under the new world ranking rules, WTT Grand Slam will have the same ranking points as the Olympic Games and the World Table Tennis Championships.
