Paddle to the metal

You’ve played in your basement and watched it from afar during the Olympics but you may never have gotten the opportunity to see the pros do it.

That’s right, the 2026 Canadian Table Tennis Championships will be landing in our very own city for the first time in a decade. From July 17-23, the Manitoba Table Tennis Association (MTTA) will be hosting Canada’s best players at the Duckworth Centre.

And Carlos Cuadra, executive director of MTTA, is encouraging Winnipeggers to come and enjoy the event.

“We were hungry. We definitely wanted to do it,” Cuadra explained. “We want to show Canada that we are capable of doing such events. And who knows, maybe try international events, too.”

Even though Cuadra has only been in this role for three years, he’s been determined to bring this competition back to Winnipeg once again.

“There are new people coming to our association now and a strong board who has done it before. We had the manpower and experience to aim for it,” he said.

With approximately 350 athletes travelling to the heart of Canada, it’ll be a championship event local residents won’t want to miss.

“People can come and they can see many different events. They’ll be able to witness different levels of competition and just a lot of different players,” he added.

This event will host both senior and junior events, a guaranteed mixed range of experience and agility. The seniors side will have both men’s and women’s singles and doubles, mixed doubles, as well as senior men and women singles 40 and over. The senior tournament will run on the first two days with the finals transitioning directly into the juniors start.

The juniors competition will be begin on July 19 and includes boys and girls singles in U11, U13, U15, and U19, as well as boys and girls teams in U13, U15, and U19.

“We have 16 tables. Roughly we’re going to be playing around 200 matches every day,” Cuadra noted.

The event will work similarly to other tournaments with a round robin, elimination and finals rounds scattered over the seven days of competition.

There are also some big names to expect at the table, ranging from well-known Olympians to local athletes ready to make a name for themselves. There will be 50 Manitobans participating, such as Matthew Lehman — a top player for Manitoba and former Canadian national team member — and Terry Zhang, a four-time Canadian Junior Champion.

“He’s still very competitive in the province,” Cuadra said of Zhang, who’s competing on the national stage for the first time in 10 years. “He’s more than a player, he’s a table tennis entrepreneur.”

Zhang is head coach at the Pong Room, a place that helps foster newcomers to the sport and allow athletes to train in a competitive atmosphere.

“Table tennis is a great sport for everybody and this is a great opportunity to come experience the best professionals of the sport,” Cuadra said.

“This is the best table tennis level that you’re going to find in Canada. If you’re thinking of when you see the Olympics — the (players) are far away from the table, a crazy amount of speed, the ball is flying all over the place — that’s what people can expect.”

It’ll also be a chance to not only see the province’s own talents, but to see what Canada has to offer in the world of table tennis.

The cherry on top? The seven day tournament that had an entry fee is now free for everybody to come and enjoy.

“I would strongly recommend people come give it a try. Take a look, have some fun, and enjoy table tennis,” Cuadra said.

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