A return to the roots. At its General Assembly in Bangkok on Thursday 24 August, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) awarded London the bid to host the World Team Championships in 2026. The event, which will mark the 100th anniversary of the World Championships – and of the creation of the body – had been coveted by the English capital and Bangkok. The delegates opted for history by awarding the competition to the city where the first table tennis world championships were held in 1926. London has not hosted the World Championships since 1954. England, for its part, has not hosted them since 1997, when the world’s elite met in Manchester. In 2026, the World Team Championships will be held in May at the Wembley Arena. The day before the decision was taken, the ITTF Council voted in favour of increasing the number of participating teams to 64 for the 2026 event in London. During the same General Assembly, the ITTF also awarded two editions of the World Youth Championships (cadets and juniors) in one go: the event will take place in Romania in 2025 and in Bahrain the following year. Finally, it was decided that the next ITTF Summit, held earlier this week in Bangkok prior to the General Assembly, will be held in Busan in 2024. It will take place in the wake of the World Team Championships, scheduled to be held in the same South Korean city.
