As the England squad enter final ‘prep mode’ ahead of a home World Championships, Gavin Evans has an eye on how to maximise the opportunity now – and in the future.

Men’s and women’s squad members have been at a training camp in Sheffield in recent days – some of them have travelled to compete at WTT Feeder Havirov in Czechia this week but the full squad will be back in Sheffield from Sunday.

It will be busy at the Elite Training Centre as England will be joined by athletes from Wales, Australia, India and Spain for their final preparations before travelling to London for the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals London 2026 Presented by ACN, with England’s first matches on Saturday 2 May.

Director of Performance Development Evans said the individual players are focusing on their own games and how they can get to OVO Arena Wembley in the best possible shape, although he acknowledges there is a slightly different dynamic in the hall when preparing for a team event.

“It’s a team event, but you will need to be firing individually,” said Evans. “So, what we’re trying to work on is everyone getting in their best shape, whether that be physically, mentally, technically – that’s the real focus.

“Then we’ll have afternoons together where we do some team building and so on, making sure that cohesion in the team is where we need it to be.

“I think that team connection is the bit that people look forward to. And of course, you look forward to being on the bench supporting your fellow athlete, you look forward to them supporting you. That’s the real camaraderie that goes with the team that we all look forward to.

“If you’re going into a singles World Championships, you’re very focused on yourself and you’re not necessarily concerned about what anyone else is doing around you. You’re very selfish in your approach.

“So, there is a difference – however, you still go on in the match and the only person you can play for is yourself.”

Evans says the England squads have an “incredible opportunity” to play some of the best teams in the world – the men open up against China on Saturday 2 May and the women the same day against Japan.

He says the approach will be to give it everything – knowing the task is a tough one but determined to make the most of it.

“First of all, what an amazing experience it is to play a world Championships in London,” he said. “Even that alone is just an extraordinary experience I really hope that they cherish forever.

“And then the obvious, making sure that they go in there with the behaviours that they’re currently honing in the practice hall, making sure they can go on in their top shape. If they hit that top shape, I think they could do really well.

“Particularly China, they’ve not lost a team match for more than 20 years, so there’s no pressure on us. We’re not going in thinking ‘we have to win this’ or ‘the nation expects us to win this’.

“But what we are looking forward to is going on there, understanding where our players are compared with the best players in the world, taking as much learning as possible from that experience.

“Of course, on any given day we might see an amazing result, and we have had victories against the Chinese previously. However, to win a team match is that bit harder, so we’re not necessarily going on expecting that.

“But we’ll be looking at how do we get better off the back of this experience? Making sure that when we play the best in the world, we understand where we’re winning points, where we’re losing points, where our development opportunities are, taking that back into the training hall, taking that back into further competition and ensure we keep progressing.

“What we are making sure we do is take every piece of learning that we possibly can to make sure in years to come, we can be as good as them.”

It is not just on the table that Evans is excited for the opportunity.

“How many more world championships are we likely to get in London in our lifetime?” he said. “We have to cherish it with everything we’ve got.

“I know all the players are super excited, and it’s not just the table tennis, it’s the fans, it’s all the other stuff we do around the event and will hopefully put table tennis on a better footing moving forward.

“And that’s the bit I’m really excited about. I’ve got schools saying they can’t wait to be there, I’ve got other members of my family saying they can’t wait to be there. There’s people I haven’t spoken to for years saying ‘can I get a ticket?’

“I can’t wait to see all the fans, and we’ll do our best and try to make England proud.”