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 2018 was the year for the team events to be contested, and Halmstad, Sweden staged the event from 29 April to 6 May 2018.

Team Event Cups
by courtesy of the ITTF

The World Table Tennis Championships 2018 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 Two, 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 Two).

The following equipment was used at the 2018 World Team Championships...

• Tables, Net and Post - DHS Gold Rainbow for Showcourts, T1223 for other courts (blue)
  
  
• Balls - Butterfly A40+ 3 star (white)
  
  
• Flooring - Gerflor (red)

This was the brand new table created for the 2018 World Table Tennis Championships in Halmstad.

The design was based on DHS's classic Rainbow model with a colour combination of gold and blue.

The logo for the 2018 World Team Championships was incorporated as part of undercarriage. In addition, the colour of table top was customized according to the blue on the Swedish flag.

The World Team Championships were played on a "Division" System with 24 teams in 3 Divisions.

In each of the 3 Divisions there were 4 groups of 6 teams.

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

Only associations who took part with at least one player or team in its preceding Continental Championships, including qualification tournaments, or Continental Games were eligible to enter a team in the 2018 World Championships.

Teams

The teams that finished in the top 14 places at the 2016 World Team Championships were guaranteed a place in the Championship Division regardless of World Ranking.

In addition, the teams who finished in first and second places in the remaining divisions in 2016 gained promotion to the next highest division.

Seeding

Seeding was based on the World Team Ranking published for January 2018. (The World Team Ranking for each national association is based on the three highest ranked players in that association named on the current Men's and Women's World Rankings).

The playing system for the 1st Division (Championship Division) was in two stages...

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.

MEN

First (Championship) Division

Germany, China, Japan, France, South Korea, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong China, Portugal, Sweden, Brazil, Austria, England, India, Belgium, Russia, Egypt, Romania, Czech Republic, Belarus, Croatia, Singapore, Poland, Slovenia, North Korea.

Second Division

Chile, Slovak Republic, Italy, Spain, Iran, Hungary, Argentina, Denmark, Ukraine, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Greece, Paraguay, USA, Thailand, Australia, Turkey, Netherlands, Ecuador, Luxembourg, Serbia, Puerto Rico, Bulgaria, Canada.

Third Division

Mexico, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Lithuania, Dominican Republic, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Vietnam, New Zealand, Guatemala, Switzerland, Algeria, Macao, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Congo Brazzaville, Peru, Jordan, Finland, Israel, Togo, Tunisia, South Africa.

^ Top of page ^

WOMEN

First (Championship) Division

China, Japan, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong China, South Korea, Romania, Austria, Singapore, Russia, Hungary, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Thailand, Ukraine, India, Egypt, Belarus, North Korea, Brazil, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, USA, Sweden.

Second Division

France, Italy, Spain, Chile, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, Croatia, Belgium, Colombia, Argentina, England, Australia, Iran, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovak Republic, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Lithuania, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Canada, Mexico, Greece.

Third Division

Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Estonia, Norway, Wales, Algeria, Finland, Indonesia, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Maldives, Macao, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Lebanon, Pakistan, Jordan, Bulgaria, Bangladesh, Portugal, Bosnia-Herczegovina, South Africa, Morocco.

The last World Team Table Tennis Championships were held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in February/March 2016 and the winners were...

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

China's men defeated Japan in the final, whilst China's women also defeated Japan in the final.

All the results for 2016 are here...

2016 Men's Team Event Results here

2016 Women's Team Event Results here

2018 Men's Team Event Results here

2018 Women's Team Event Results here