Macao Table Tennis Association Preparing for World Team Table Tennis Championships by Reopening Local Competitions

As the epidemic stabilizes, the Macao Table Tennis Association resumed the rehab training for the Macao team in March. Wong Chong Fan, the team's chief coach, said“The team has three training sessions every day respectively in the morning, afternoon and evening. The team will be signed up for three local matches to see if the members are ready for next year's World Team Table Tennis Championships.”

In alignment with official guidelines, the Macao team has kept a cap on the number of attendants in each training session by means of day-parting since the training resumed. Wong said“Cheong Chi Chon and Cheong Chi Cheng, instructed by Li Xiang, have a total of six hours of daily training in the morning and in the afternoon from Monday to Saturday, with a focus on techniques and stamina, while other players are trained 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. every night in a group of no more than 30 people.”

The Macao Table Tennis Association only ticked the Advanced Table Tennis Singles Competition off its 2020 task list before the Covid-19 struck. Wong said that in the second half of 2020 the priority would be placed on bringing training back on track.“We are looking at three local matches including the Macao Table Tennis Association Cup in early August, the Macao Junior Competition in mid August and the Macao Youth Competition in late August. We hope all team members will switch back to their competition mode and then push themselves to the optimal, thus gearing up for the World Team Table Tennis Championships held in Busan, South Korea next February.”

As far as Wong knows, the Macao Table Tennis Association is still waiting for notices from ITTF as no schedule for any international event is released yet.“We don't know what competitions our team will be attending because no news has come so far. The Busan Championships has been delayed multiple times due to the epidemic, and the latest notice informs that the Championships will be held from Februrary 28 to March 7 next year if everything goes as scheduled. With that in mind, the Macao team is training with a view to keeping players at their best while ensuring their health.”