The rapid spread of the coronavirus in South Korea has prompted the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) to postpone the 2020 World Team Table Tennis Championships in Busan, South Korea scheduled to be held March 22-29.
The postponement of the championships holds special significance for Guyana since the world tennis body announced a few days ago that Guyana’s female team had been selected to attend the championships.
It was the first time that a Guyanese team had qualified for the world team event.
“In light of the emerging situation in the Korea Republic and to best preserve the health and safety of players, officials and fans, the Hana Bank 2020 World Team Table Tennis Championships in Busan have been postponed with the dates of 21-28 June provisionally reserved,” ITTF announced via a release.
The announcement emerged after an emergency contingency meeting was held between the ITTF Senior Management, the Korea Table Tennis Association (KTTA) and representatives of the city of Busan.
The decision falls on the better side of wisdom since according to a recent report from the BBC: “South Korea has seen by far the highest numbers of coronavirus cases outside of China – within a week confirmed cases jumped from a few dozen to more than 900.”
They will continue to monitor the situation in the coming weeks.
“In light of the postponement of the Hana Bank 2020 World Team Table Tennis Championships, the ITTF is currently working with the local organising committee of the World Tour Australian and Korean Opens to find suitable dates for those events, which had been scheduled to take place during the same period.”
The Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) in a release recently, pointed out that the recent performances from the likes of Trenace Lowe, Chelsea Edghill, Natalie Cummings, Jody Ann Blake and Priscilla Greaves in international competitions such as the Commonwealth Games, the South America Games in Bolivia, silver medal finishes in the Caribbean championships and Pan American qualifications went a long way in securing the slot to South Korea.
