The World Table Tennis Championships first took place in 1926 in London, England. However, since the year 2000, the Championship has been split into two separate competitions.

Team events are now held in even numbered years, whilst individual events (singles and doubles) are held in odd numbered years.

So 2014 was the year for the team events to be contested, and Tokyo in Japan staged the event from 28th April to 5th May 2014.

Team Event Cups
by courtesy of the ITTF

The World Table Tennis Championships 2014 events were...

• Men's Team - for the Swaythling Cup
  
  
• Women's Team - for the Marcel Corbillon Cup

The Swaythling Cup was donated in 1926 by Lady Baroness Swaythling, mother of Ivor Montagu, whilst the Corbillon Cup was donated in 1933 by Marcel Corbillon, President of the French TTA, for the first Women's Team event at the 1934 World Championships.

However, the original Corbillon Cup disappeared just after World War II, so the German Table Tennis Federation paid for an exact replica in 1949 (the German Women's team won the Cup in the 1939 World Championships - the last time it was played before the outbreak of World War II).

The following equipment was used at the 2014 World Team Championships...

• Tables - San-Ei (Blue)
• Net and Posts - Butterfly
• Balls - Double Happiness 3 star
• Flooring - Gerflor Taraflex (Red)

The World Team Championships were played on a "Division" System with 24 teams in each of the top 4 Divisions. All other teams formed a 5th Division.

In each of the top 4 Divisions there were 4 groups of 6 teams, whereas the 5th Division comprised all the remaining teams divided into groups.

The 1st Division was also the Championship Division. Only teams in this division competed for the title of World Champions.

All teams were seeded according to their final position at the 2012 World Team Championships and / or their current World ranking.

However, the top 18 teams of the 1st Division at the 2012 World Team Championships were guaranteed a place in the 1st Division regardless of their position on the current ITTF World Team Ranking list.

The playing system for the 1st Division (Championship Division) was as follows...

Each group of 6 teams played a complete round-robin competition (5 matches per team).

Then...

Following the completion of the round robin stage in each group, the teams who finished in the top three positions in each group advanced to a knock-out competition to compete for the title of World Champions.

The winners of each group (4 teams) went directly into the quarter finals and were seeded accordingly.

The teams finishing 2nd in each group were drawn randomly into positions 5-8 in Round 1.

The teams finishing 3rd in each group were drawn randomly into positions 9-12 in Round 1 (except, teams having played against each other in the group stage would not meet again in the first round of the knock-­out competition).

And...

The teams finishing 4th, 5th and 6th in each group (12 teams) played a similar knock-out competition to determine positions 13 to 24.

The previous World Team Table Tennis Championships were held in Dortmund, Germany in March 2012 and the winners were...

• Men's Team - China
• Women's Team - China

China's men defeated Germany in the final, whilst China's women defeated Singapore in the final.

China - 2012 Men's World Team Champions

China - 2012 Women's World Team Champions

The Japanese company Zen-Noh were the title sponsor of the 2014 ITTF World Team Championships to be held in Tokyo, Japan from Monday 28th April to Monday 5th May 2014.

At the unveiling ceremony, Koji Kimura, winner of four World Championship gold medals and now Vice President of the Japanese Table Tennis Association said...

"I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Zen-Noh, who kindly accepted the title sponsorship for the Zen-Noh 2014 World Team Table Tennis Championships. Table tennis players and fans in Japan have special feelings and preference for team table tennis, so it should be a great event."

And Masanobu Yoshinaga, the Senior Executive Vice President of Zen-Noh, said...

"We are honoured to be the title sponsor of Zen-Noh 2014 World Team Table Tennis Championships. Zen-Noh has been supporting children who are striving for their dreams in the various sports for a long time. We hope that by seeing the Championships, many children will be inspired to start playing table tennis in the pursuit of 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games."

The Zen-Noh company is involved in a whole range of sports, and Masanobu Yoshinaga continued...

"We have been supporting Japanese athletes, not just table tennis players, by supplying food under the "Support Japanese players' Performance by Japanese Food" slogan. This time, we are delighted if players, officials and staff from all over the world enjoy and love Japanese foods' taste.

Adham Sharara, ITTF President, said...

"I take this opportunity to welcome Zen-Noh as the title sponsor and I am sure that they will be more than satisfied with the tremendous exposure they will receive through world-wide TV coverage. The ITTF is confident that another great event will be staged by the Japan Table Tennis Association."

Expectations were also high from the Japanese public for the teams to win gold at the Zen-Noh 2014 World Team Table Tennis Championships.

The Japanese women's team won the silver medal at the 2012 London Olympic Games and the Japanese Men's Team were ranked no.3 in the world.

Kenta Matsudaira, who reached the quarter-finals of the Men's Singles at the 2013 Liebherr World Championships in Paris, said...

"There will naturally be a great, supportive atmosphere towards Japanese players and I want to win the gold. I also want to bring the hopes to the people in the disaster area affected by the earthquake."

Men's Team Event Results here

Women's Team Event Results here