2009 World Table Tennis Championships

2009 World Table Tennis Championships

The 2009 H.I.S. World Table Tennis Championships were held in Yokohama, Japan, from 28 April to 5 May 2009. The Chinese team dominated the competition, following their sweep of the gold medals in table tennis at the 2008 Summer Olympics. It was the tenth (and third consecutive) world table tennis championships at which China won all five available titles.

Fourth-ranked Timo Boll of Germany, a challenger for the men's singles title, was forced to withdraw from the tournament due to a back injury. After Boll's withdrawal, players from China held the top four seedings in both the men's and women's singles competitions.

The event took place during the 2009 swine flu outbreak, with the participants being affected by this. When a case of the strain was found in the body of a seventeen year-old schoolboy in Yokohama, where the championships were taking place, the event's organisers implemented new measures to stop the flu spreading. Thermographic exam cameras were installed at the player entrances of Yokohama Arena, with the intention of sending anyone with unusually high body temperatures for medical assistance. The players were told to scrub their hands well for hygiene reasons and to avail of face masks and hand gels which had previously been used during outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome and avian influenza. Participants from Mexico, the most severely affected country taking part in the championships, were placed in quarantine and given thermometers to check their temperature regularly.

China collected seventeen of the available twenty medals at the championships, to follow their four golds at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. After the championships had ended, the country's deputy sports minister, Cai Zhenhua questioned whether China's dominance in the sport would have a negative effect on its development. He said: "From the point of view of the Chinese association, the coaches and the players, it is a great achievement. But personally I am anxious that it is dangerous for the development of this sport worldwide. The truth is we have failed again. Chinese players grabbing all titles in whatever tournament they participate in is definitely detrimental". He advocated issuing invitations to non-Chinese nationals to train in the country and suggested Chinese coaches could be sent to other countries as "up to 70 percent of Chinese knowledge and tactics could be shared with others".