Time flies, now a decade ago, the city of London hosted the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. More recently welcome visitors were Petra Sörling, ITTF President, alongside Steve Dainton, ITTF Chief Executive Officer and Raul Calin, ITTF Secretary-General.

They met members of Table Tennis England and British Para Table Tennis as well as representatives from UK Sport.

“It’s always a pleasure to visit our friends in England. I came recently for the 100 years of Table Tennis England. The ITTF centenary is around the corner, and we are hoping London can play a part in that celebration, as it did in 1926 when it hosted the first ever world table tennis championships.”
ITTF President Petra Sörling

The group also visited the O2 Arena, a state-of-the-art venue with a capacity to seat 20,000 spectators, and easy access to transportation networks.

“Table Tennis England, and our major event partner, UK Sport, were delighted to host our friends and colleagues from the ITTF in London at the weekend. We enjoyed fruitful discussions where we had the opportunity to share our vision for staging major events in this country, including our aspiration to be part of the ITTF’s Centenary celebrations, in the City where international table tennis was born. I would also like to say a huge thank you to the Board of the British Basketball League for providing the opportunity to showcase the world famous O2 Arena at the fantastic finale to the basketball season.”
Sandra Deaton, Chair of Table Tennis England