Durban to host 2023 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals

NEW DELHI: In a first, the 2023 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals will be staged in Durban, South Africa.

The announcement was made at the ITTF's Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Monday, the first ever virtually conducted AGM in the table tennis governing body's history. Durban won 90 votes (69.77 per cent) to beat off competition from the other candidate city, Dusseldorf, Germany, who won 39 votes (30.23 per cent), as per an ITTF media release.

This will be the first time that the prestigious event is being held in South Africa and the first time on the African continent since Cairo, Egypt, in 1939.

The new format for the World Table Tennis Championships Finals will come into place in 2021, requiring participants to contend for berths through continental qualifications, thus making it more feasible for more countries and regions to host the event. IANS

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