Cape Town — The South African table tennis fraternity will enjoy the full glare of the international spotlight when the 2023 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals are held at the ICC Convention Centre in Durban.
The nine-day tournament starts on Saturday and ends with the championship rounds on May 28.
This will be the first time the event will be played in Africa since 1939 when Egypt was the host. The Durban tournament is expected to reach over 500 million fans across TV and digital platforms.
In the past decade, the championships finals were held mostly in Europe, the US, Japan, China and Malaysia.
The event will feature the world’s best players in pursuit of the holy grail of world table tennis. They will compete for the five crowns at stake: singles (men and women), doubles (men and women) and mixed doubles.
The number of entrants from member countries has been determined by their world ranking.
The South African Table Tennis Board has unveiled the tournament’s official mascot, Takuma, the hippopotamus that embodies the strength and abundance of Africa's cultural heritage.
Takuma will serve as a source of excitement, fostering fan engagement and building team spirit throughout the tournament. Fans in Durban can look forward to seeing Takuma all over the city, as he will be utilised to attract new fans and increase team visibility in the local community.
Takuma was designed by Tumelo Nkoana, a 13-year-old from Mogogelo Village north of Pretoria, who won a nationwide competition to select a mascot for the Africa Cup of Nations tournament in 2013, beating over 180 other entries. Since then, Takuma has become the mascot for all sports in South Africa.
Players from over 64 member associations will participate and China will again showcase its dominant force in global table tennis. Their strong line-up includes many that are currently ranked among the world's best.
IOL Sport