"Park Ga-hyun, Yang Ha-eun, Yu Si-woo" will join Shin Yu-bin and Kim Na-young! 2026 London World Table Tennis Championships Team Event Dispatched to Men's and Women's National Team

*This content was translated by AI.

The Korean national team for the 2026 London World Table Tennis Championships, which will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), has been finally confirmed.

The Korea Table Tennis Association announced on the 7th that it held a selection contest for dispatched representatives at the Jincheon National Training Center Table Tennis Gymnasium (Oryungwan) from April 5 to 7.

The entry for the team event at the World Championships is five men and women each. The association previously selected three men and women within the world's 50th rank first, and this selection match was first targeted at members of the first team other than the starters. The tournament winner immediately joined the national team and the remaining players were selected for the tournament again.

Jang Woo-jin (30, Se-ah, 9th in the world), Ahn Jae-hyun (26, Korea Exchange, 20th), and Oh Jun-sung (19, Korea Exchange, 31st) were selected first for the men's team, while Kim Jang-won (24, Se-ah) and Lim Yuno (21, Korean military sports unit) joined through two tournaments.

Kim Jang-won drew attention in the first tournament by beating strong players with experience in the national team, including Cho Dae-sung (Hwaseong City Corporation), Lim Jong-hoon (Korea Exchange), and Park Kyu-hyun (Mirae Asset Securities). Im Yuno also beat Im Jong-hoon and Park Kyu-hyun in the second game. The two players, who are all over Sangmu or are about to be discharged from the military, wore the first national flag of their lives side by side. The two players, who are between the seniors and juniors of Duho High School in Gyeongsangbuk-do, will revitalize the national team.

The women's team played one more tournament than the men. This is because Joo Chun-hee (24, Samsung Life Insurance, 17th in the world), who is the automatic selection target, has not yet met the naturalization regulations. Joo Chun-hee acquired Korean nationality in January 2020. Unlike the Olympics and Asian Games, the World Championships cannot be played until seven years after naturalization.

Therefore, the women's national team selected three representatives to play with Shin Yoo-bin (21, Korean Air, 12th in the world) and Kim Na-young (20, POSCO International, 30th), and Park Ga-hyun (18, Korean Air), Yang Ha-eun (32, Hwaseong City Corporation), and Yoo Si-woo (24, Hwaseong City Corporation) won the first, second and third tournaments, respectively.

In the women's national team, junior Park Ga-hyun won the first tournament and was the first to join the national team, drawing special attention. In other words, he has broken through the recent controversy over the second-ranked national team selection (within the top 100 in the senior rankings of Us players). Park Ga-hyun, who is also the leading player in the 2024 World Youth Championship, has already experienced the senior national team in the individual competition at the Doha World Championship last year. He is going to try again until this team event.

It is also noteworthy that the new and old aces of Hwaseong City Corporation joined side by side. Yang Ha-eun is expected to play a role in taking the center stage of the young squad based on her abundant experience in international competitions. Yu Si-woo, who has improved his skills through the professional league, finally showed off his scary growth by becoming a World Championship dispatched representative. There is also a good chance that it will be used as a hidden card for Korea in London.

As a result, the Korean national team for the 2026 London World Table Tennis Championships has been confirmed as men's Jang Woo-jin, Ahn Jae-hyun, Oh Jun-sung, Kim Jang-won, Im Yuno, women's Shin Yoo-bin, Kim Na-young, Park Ga-hyun, Yang Ha-eun, and Yoo Si-woo. Men's Oh Sang-eun, coaches Yoon Jae-young and Hwang Sung-hoon, women's coach Seok Eun-mi, and coaches Seo Hyun-deok and Seo Hyo-won will play with the players.

The London World Table Tennis Championships expanded the number of participants from 40 to 64. It has been expanded to a stage where table tennis players from around the world join to match its historical weight, and the tournament will run for 13 days from April 28 to May 10.

As the number of participating countries increased, the way the game was played also changed. 64 men's and women's countries (NOC) will be divided into 16 groups of four countries to play the qualifying league, while eight countries, including the world's No. 1 to No. 7 countries and host England, will play in the first and second groups to allocate seeds with their qualification for the round of 32.

As of March 2026, Korea, ranked sixth in men's and third in women's team rankings, will also start its schedule in the seed group. Men are in the same group as China (1st), Sweden (3rd), England (host country), and women are in the same group as China (1st), Taiwan (6th), and Romania (7th). In order to secure an advantageous position in the finals, it is important to secure the highest seed at this stage.

At the beginning of the tournament, group games from 56 lower-ranking countries will be held first, and group 1 and 2 games will begin on May 2. The Korean national team will leave for the country on April 28. The national team, which became "complete" after the selection match, will conduct reinforcement training at Jincheon Training Center before leaving the country.

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*This content was translated by AI.