Seoul, Korea, July 14, 2020: The world's top table tennis tournament set to take place in South Korea this year has been postponed to February 2021 due to lingering concerns over the novel coronavirus, reports Yonhap News.
The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) announced on Monday, July 13 that the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Busan, 450km southeast of Seoul, would run from February 28 to March 7 next year.
It was originally set for March 22-29 this year in the host city of the 14th Asian Games in 2002 but was pushed back to June 21-28 due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Then, in late March, the ITTF decided to shelve all international competitions and activities until June 30. It was then determined on April 7 that the world championships would be played from September 27-October 4.
The ITTF's Executive Committee asked Busan's organisers on June 5 to move the tournament even further back to the early part of 2021, citing the unlikelihood that many teams would be able to travel to Korea in September this year during the pandemic.
The ITTF Executive Committee determined last Friday that the competition would open in February next year.