2018 World Team Table Tennis C’ships: “United Korea” Team to Participate

According to ITTF, North and South Korea have announced that they will be participating in 2018 World Team Table Tennis Championships with a Unified Team.

South and North Korea surprised the umpires when the team managements informed that they do not want to compete against each other in the quarter-final match of the Liebherr 2018 World Team Table Tennis Championships, being played in Halmstad, Sweden.

Instead, both the teams have requested that they would like to form a unified Korean Team to collectively compete in the semi-final, which will be held on 4th of May against either Ukraine or Japan.

The last time was in 1991, when a unified Korea team played the World Table Tennis Championships in Chiba, Japan.  During this collective participation the unified Korean team shocked the defending Champion China, and were crowned World Champions.

During this unified stance of the two countries, the ITTF Board of Directors meeting was in session, which was being chaired by ITTF President Thomas Weikert who stated: “When I informed the Board of Directors about this development, the unified team received a standing ovation from the delegates who showed their sign of support to this historic move.”

2018 has been a welcoming year for joining forces for the two Korean countries, especially after history was made when they marched together in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang. This which was the most significant sign of unity in international sport since the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships.

The move at Liebherr 2018 World Team Table Tennis Championships, follows the commitment of South and North Korean leaders’ a week ago for “lasting peace” to the Korea peninsula. And the team unification at the championship in Sweden, portrays that table tennis is a desirable medium to support peace through sport.