Qatar Officially Receives Flag Ahead of Hosting 2025 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships

Qatar Officially Receives 2025 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Flag

Qatar officially received the flag for the 2025 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships ahead of hosting it in Doha. The tournament will be held in Qatar mid-next year at the Lusail Sports Arena.

Concluding the competitions of the 2024 Busan World Championships in South Korea, President of the Korean Table Tennis Association, Ryu Seung Min, handed over the hosting flag to ITTF President Petra Sorling, to be delivered to President of the Qatar Table Tennis Association Khalil Al Mohannadi, during a ceremony attended by a large number of continental federation presidents, ITTF officials, and World Table Tennis (WTT) officials, as well as Qatari federation officials and dignitaries.

The Qatari delegation attending the flag handover ceremony in Busan, South Korea, was headed by Khalil Al Mohannadi, included Secretary-General of the Qatar Table Tennis Association Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, Assistant Secretary-General of the Association Ali Sultan Al Muftah, and Abdullah Al Mulla, a member of the Association's Board of Directors.

This will be Qatar's second time hosting the championship, making it the only Arab country and the only one in the Middle East to have this honor after successfully hosting the event in 2004.

The tournament will feature singles and doubles competitions, totaling 5 events for men's and women's singles and doubles, and mixed doubles with a total of 443 matches. The championship will be the ITTF's final test before celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first World Championships in the history of the game in 1926, which will take place at the famous Wembley Stadium in 2026.

The Doha 2025 World Championships will also host the ITTF General Assembly meetings, which have been merged to be held annually in the same country hosting the World Championships after the majority approval of votes at the last meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, to reduce costs and to give the opportunity for the largest number of countries to participate. The decision will be implemented immediately starting from the 2025 edition in Doha.

The meeting will also witness the election of the ITTF President for the next 4 years until 2029, and the meeting will continue for 4 days after the conclusion of the World Championships.

It is worth mentioning that Qatar won the honor of hosting the 2025 World Table Tennis Championships during the voting of member associations to choose the host city on the sidelines of the ITTF General Assembly meeting in the Jordanian capital, Amman, in December 2022, after receiving 57 votes compared to 39 votes for the Spanish city of Alicante.

Source: QNA