Canada, Edward Ly target strong start at World Team Championships in London

Canada’s World Team Championships opener in London was never just about getting through Group 16. With Edward Ly as the most recognizable face of the squad, the real question is whether Canada can turn a pair of Pan Am silver medals and an Olympic appearance into something that looks sustainable against the world’s best.

The setting makes the test even sharper. The ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London run from 28 April to 10 May 2026, exactly 100 years after the first World Table Tennis Championships and the founding of the ITTF in the same city. The field has also grown from 42 teams per gender to 64 men’s teams and 64 women’s teams, split into 16 groups of four. Stage 1A sends the top seven seeds plus host nation England straight to the Round of 32, which means everyone else has to earn every inch.

That is the bracket Canada walked into. The men were drawn into Group 16 with Belgium, Cameroon and Fiji, a group that still offers no soft landing in a tournament where ITTF said 19 of the world’s top 20 men, plus most of the top 20 women, were in the lineup. For Canada, a strong start would not just mean surviving the group. It would show that the country’s men can hold up when the level jumps from Pan Am pressure to genuine world-class depth.

Ly is the cleanest symbol of that jump. He helped Canada win silver in the men’s team event at the 2023 Pan American Championships, a result that qualified the full men’s team for Paris 2024. He also played for Canada at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games and at Paris 2024, and the Canadian Olympic Committee has pointed to his ability to deliver in tight spots against higher-ranked opponents. That is exactly the profile Canada needs if this team is going to stop being viewed as a scrappy regional threat and start being taken seriously on the world stage.

Table Tennis Canada finalized its 2026 national team rosters after trials in Montreal from 16 to 18 January, and both the men’s and women’s teams arrived in London with full squads. That matters. Full teams mean selection depth, internal competition and more chances for players like Ly to be pushed before they reach the biggest stages.

If Canada makes noise here, it will say the pipeline is working and the sport’s momentum at home is real. If the team folds quickly, the message will be harsher: Canada still has names, but not yet the week-in, week-out depth to back them up.