ITTF announces new dates for Word Championships

The Word Championships, originally scheduled for March 2020, will now he held from September 27 to October 4, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) announced on Tuesday.

The most significant annual table tennis event, the 2020 World Team Table Tennis Championships were among the many ITTF events to be postponed this year in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

Originally due to take place between March 22-29 in Busan, an emergency ITTF Executive Committee meeting had proposed provisional dates of June 21-28 while maintaining that further back-up plans may be required if the pandemic persisted.

"On 29 March 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 30 June 2020," said the ITTF in a statement.

"Now with new provisional dates proposed for 27 September 4 October 2020, the ITTF and KTTA (Korean TT body) continue to monitor the situation, with the priority being placed on the health and safety of players, coaches, fans and officials.

The global death toll from the pandemic has crossed 70,000.