Coronavirus: Postponement of World Team Table Tennis C'ships could be boon to Singapore team

SINGAPORE - The postponement of the World Team Table Tennis Championships due to the coronavirus situation could turn out to be a blessing in disguise for the Singapore women's team's hopes of winning a medal at Tokyo 2020.

In a press release on Tuesday (Feb 25), the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) announced that the event, scheduled for March 22-29 in Busan, South Korea, will be provisionally moved to June 21-28.

However, those dates clash with the ITTF World Tour's Australian Open (June 23-28) and Korean Open (June 16-21) and it is now scrambling to "find suitable dates for those events".

With nearly 1,000 cases and 10 deaths from the Covid-19 disease in South Korea, the ITTF said in a statement that "the decision was made with the health and safety of players, officials and fans as the top priority".

It thanked the Korean federation for its "outstanding professionalism in dealing with this extraordinary situation" and noted that "by continuing to work hard and in close cooperation with all stakeholders in Busan, the ITTF remains confident about putting on a great World Championships in June".

The biennial tournament, which the Singapore women won in 2010, was supposed to host about 3,000 players and officials from 87 countries, said the Yonhap news agency.

Singapore Table Tennis Association senior high performance manager Eddy Tay told The Straits Times that moving the world championships closer to the Olympics could help the Singapore team's preparations as it "gives us the opportunity to play more high-level games".

"It also falls nicely before our planned training tour in Japan from July 1," he added.

The national women's team, spearheaded by world No. 8 Feng Tianwei, are hoping to get back on the podium after losing the bronze-medal playoffs to Japan in Rio 2016. Previously, they had won silver at Beijing 2008 and bronze at London 2012.

Both the men's and women's teams have been training in Japan since Feb 12 and will return on Wednesday.

For the top players, their next major assignment is the Qatar Open next month. Singapore will also be represented at the Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament in Bangkok from April 6-12 as they fight for a Tokyo 2020 place in the men's singles and mixed doubles.

The coronavirus situation has had a considerable effect on their preparations as the STTA is unable to bring in sparring partners from China due to travel restrictions.

Tay said: "We usually have Chinese sparring partners and had planned to invite some to Japan to train with us, but we had to change and find some from the Japanese clubs instead.

"Good sparring partners are important in our build-up to the Olympics and while we understand the precautionary measures, we will have to come up with alternatives such as finding some from Japan, although they may also have concerns about travelling to Singapore. So, we could go back to Japan again."

On Monday, South Korea's K-league postponed the start of the new football season scheduled for this weekend.

Volleyball, basketball and handball have taken similar measures.

Two Asian Champions League football matches next week - FC Seoul versus Thailand's Chiangrai United and Ulsan versus Australia's Perth Glory - will be played behind closed doors.

Japan also suspended its football league yesterday, with just five months to the Tokyo Olympics. All J-League and Cup games were postponed until next month.

In Europe, Serie A matches are set to be played behind closed doors if proposals from the Italian football federation are approved by the government. These would include the match between league leaders Juventus and third-placed Inter Milan in Turin on Sunday.

Six Nations organisers are also in talks with the participating rugby unions amid concerns about the situation in Italy, where seven have died and over 220 have been infected. Italy are due to host England in their final match on March 14.

• With additional information from Agence France-Presse, Reuters