The 2024 ITTF Busan World Table Tennis Team Championship is set to kick off on February 16th, and as reporters have been gearing up for the event, they have unearthed two interesting highlights.
One of the notable occurrences at the championship is the fact that 12 groups of players from the same family will be participating in the tournament. Among these families, the well-known Japanese siblings Harimoto Tomokazu and Harimoto Mei are making headlines. Their 15-year-old sister, Harimoto Miwa, will be making her debut in the World Table Tennis Championships team competition, having previously secured a spot to represent the Japanese team in the Paris Olympics. Zhang Benzhihe, a player in the Chinese team, expressed surprise at seeing his sister join him in the competition. He hopes that the two can support and motivate each other to achieve better results in the future. Miwa Zhang expressed her ecstatic feelings about achieving her goal of playing alongside her brother in the championship. The Le Brun brothers from the French team have also made a strong impression in the European table tennis world, with 17-year-old Felix currently ranked sixth in the world. Felix has expressed his hope to share the podium with his brother at the competition.
Another highlight of the upcoming championship is that the host country, South Korea, is making a strong statement by occupying the “C position” in terms of building momentum for the home team and attracting spectators. On a promotional poster outside the Busan Convention and Exhibition Center, the venue for the competition, it is the world‘s eighth-ranked Korean female player Shin Yubin who is placed in the center position, overshadowing the men’s world number one, Fan Zhendong, and the women’s number one, Sun Yingsha. At a pre-match press conference, Shin Yubin expressed the South Korean team’s serious preparation and desire to put on a good show for the audience. ITTF President Petra Solin highlighted the special significance of the event, as table tennis entered the Olympics for the first time at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, changing the sport’s development trajectory. Looking ahead to the competition, Solin expressed her confidence in the diverse talent and passion brought by the players, from experienced veterans to promising newcomers.