The pounding of the drums expresses the excitement of Busan, the ‘Table Tennis City’, which will celebrate the 100th anniversary of table tennis in Korea next year. It was also a pledge by the table tennis players to do their best in the remaining 100 days until the World Table Tennis Championships, which will be held for the first time in Korea.
“I am looking forward to seeing how table tennis will impress the people of Busan next year, when Korean table tennis opens a new 100 years,” said Park Hyung-jun, co-organizing committee chairman of the Busan World Table Tennis Championships, at the ‘BNK Busan Bank 2024 Busan World Table Tennis Championships’ D-100 commemorative event held at Lotte Hotel in Busan on the 8th.
Originally scheduled to take place in March 2020, the event was postponed and canceled three times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the Korea Table Tennis Association and the city of Busan have re-launched their bid for the World Table Tennis Championships, which will take place at BEXCO in Busan from February 16-25 next year.
“Without the support of the city of Busan, we would not have been able to host the World Table Tennis Championships again,” said Yoo Seung-min, co-organizing committee chairman of the Korea Table Tennis Association (KTA). “We believe that great players from all over the world will gather in Busan and show their best.”
The event also saw the unveiling of the official emblem featuring the logo of main sponsor BNK Busan Bank. It is reminiscent of Busan’s landmark Gwangan Bridge, but also captures the spirit of sports unity in the form of two athletes shaking hands.
The excitement reached its peak when Park Hyung-joon and Seung-min Yoo, co-chairs of the committee, and Bang Sung-bin, president of BNK Busan Bank, simultaneously signed the Presenting Partner Agreement. The event culminated with a D-100 performance where the guests touched the holographic buttons. “We hope that this event will lead to the bid for the 2030 Expo,” said Bang Sung-bin, President of BNK Busan Bank.
The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) is also actively supporting the success of the World Table Tennis Championships. With more than 2,000 players and officials from 40 countries competing in the team 토토 event format, the ITTF has allocated 16 team berths (eight for men and eight for women) to next year’s Olympic Games in Paris. “This is an extraordinary move in an Olympic year,” said Co-Chairman Yoo Seung-min. ITTF President Petra Söhring responded, “See you in 100 days in Busan, the city I wanted to visit in 2020.”
