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“Table tennis is very good for the mind as well as the body, whatever age you are,” says 73-year-old Wang Qi, the oldest competitor at the Table Tennis Team World Championships in London.
Incredibly the Fiji player, who hails from China, is 61 years older than the youngest player, Enya Hu, from Switzerland. Age is evidently no barrier in this increasingly popular sport.
Qi and Hu are among 380 men and women representing their nations inside the Copperbox and Wembley Arenas, where extraordinary reflexes and dexterity are showcased by all.
This year’s tournament marks a century since the first world championships and comes when the sport is in the global limelight, buoyed up by the Hollywood movie Marty Supreme, starring Timothée Chalamet.
Tin-tin Ho of England, the English female No 1, waits for a serve from Hina Hayata of Japan at Wembley. Tin-tin has an older brother called Ping and was going to be called Pong by her table tennis-mad father, until her mother intervened.
Table tennis has come a long way since the early days when the Victorian parlour game was played on dining tables with cork balls and a row of books in lieu of a net.
As Boris Johnson joked during the Olympic handover prior to the 2012 Games: “Other nations looked at a dining table and saw an opportunity to have dinner; we (England) looked at it and saw an opportunity to play ‘whiff whaff’”
After technological improvements including the adoption of a plastic ball, the International Table Tennis Federation was founded by Ivor Montagu, (later unmasked as a communist spy), and the first world championships was staged in 1926 at Memorial Hall in London.
The six-day event featured players from nine countries and ended with Hungary winning all the men’s and women’s titles. Three years later, Englishman Fred Perry, later to be feted for his lawn tennis exploits, became the men’s singles table tennis champion.
The game is now a global affair, with 227 member associations and universal appeal, ranking among the top 10 sports for participation.
The ITTF president, Petra Sorling, ascribes the game’s universal appeal to its simplicity. “All you need is a table, two bats and a ball,” she says. “The cost of entry is low, the rules are simple to follow, and you can play indoors or outdoors, in any climate, in any culture.
“That’s why, here in London and around the world, you see people playing in sports centres, parks, offices, town halls – anywhere you can fit a table. It really is a sport for all.”
Having played since he was seven and having coached a future Olympic gold medallist in China in the 1980s, Qi must have felt ready for anything in London. Be it forehand drives or defensive lobs, he had nothing to fear with his trusty “chopper” bat in hand.
However, there was an unexpected twist before the tournament started, when organisers informed Qi that both of his bats were unlawful. The ruling shattered his prospects but not his spirit.
“My bat is very special, very old style: long pimples with no sponge,” he said. “I am maybe the only person who still plays this style. I had no time to fix it so I had to borrow my team member’s racket. It’s a big difference.”
Nevertheless, Qi, who recently overcame shingles and had little time to practise, battled through his matches and made friends throughout. “Lose, win, it’s no problem,” he said. After all, “table tennis is my best life”.
Community and health are fundamental to the wide appeal of table tennis. Chris Beckley, a retired firefighter who runs various coaching clubs and workshops across London, is a vocal advocate.
“From the moment I wake up until the moment I go to bed, it’s all about table tennis. I absolutely love it!” he says.
“I teach people of all ages and I love the impact this sport has on people, whether it’s on their mental health or physical health, or socially. People come together through table tennis.”
Studies in Japan in 1998 explored the game’s therapeutic potential to reduce cognitive decline and delay the onset of symptoms in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. Up to five portions of the Alzheimer’s subjects brains were activated during play.
Julian Pierre, who has had Parkinson’s for six years, can attest to the benefits of the game. The 55-year-old had not picked up a bat for five years due to his illness, but enjoyed a free event at Ping Hub in a shopping centre in Ilford, east London.
Julian Pierre, a 58-year-old who has Parkinson’s, returns balls that are fired rapidly at him by a machine, while coach Chris Beckley watches on. The pair are pictured at Ping Hub at Ilford Exchange Shopping Centre.
China has been the powerhouse of table tennis since the 1960s, winning 23 men’s and 23 women’s team world titles, while also hoovering up 37 of 42 Olympic gold medals since the sport debuted at the summer Games in 1988. China has an estimated 300m recreational players.
There was a major upset on day five of the world championships as Korea Republic beat China 3-1 in the seeding stage of the men’s team event, ending a 26-year winning streak. China’s world No 1, Chuqin Wang, didn’t feature in that match. But he did play in the following contest against Sweden, that China also lost.
Sorling says: “Table tennis is deeply ingrained in Chinese culture and with a population of over a billion, the talent pool is enormous. Add to that a state-of-the-art training infrastructure that is among the very best in the world and you have a formidable combination.
“But crucially, China’s dominance has not been a ceiling for others, it has been a catalyst. In many ways, China has made the whole world better at table tennis.”
The team world championships follow a simple format: each nation chooses three players for each match, with a best-of-five format deciding the winner. The balls fly across the tables at speeds of up to 72mph, creating a blizzard of colour and noise.
Crowds have been sparse at times in the early stages (except when the Chinese are playing) with the number of athletes often exceeding spectators. Nevertheless it is a festival of table tennis with intriguing matches and storylines aplenty. Madagascar v Mongolia, anyone?
“More and more talent is emerging from around the world,” Sorling says. “When a 12-year-old and a 73-year-old can both find genuine challenge and joy at a table, you know you have something truly special.”
The knockout stages of the tournament will conclude in front of a bumper crowd on 10 May, with the winning men lifting the Swaythling Cup – the same trophy presented to Hungary in 1926 – and the victorious women claiming the Corbillon Cup. Could China finally be deposed?
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