Temple Bar

World Table Tennis Championships return to London for first time since 1954

The World Team Table Tennis Championships arrive in London for the first time since 1954, with 64 countries and 380 players competing at the Copper Box Arena and OVO Arena. While the sport boasts 2.5 million English players and the ITTF claims 227 member nations as the world's largest sports federation, England has no players in the global top 50. The event marks the 100th anniversary of the sport's first world championship, held in London in 1926, and coincides with revelations that founding figure Ivor Montagu was a Soviet spy.