Paddlers to play in Covid-secure Chengdu bubble

China will replicate its Covid-secure Olympic bubble when it hosts its first major international sports event since the Beijing Winter Games - with organisers calling it a "roller-coaster ride".

Chengdu, which until recently was under lockdown and was also rattled by an earthquake earlier in September, will stage the table tennis world team championships from Friday for 10 days.

Much like the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics in February-March, the tournament will unfold in a "closed loop" to satisfy the strict zero-Covid policies which have seen most other major sports events in China cancelled throughout the pandemic.

The chief executive of the ITTF, the governing body of table tennis, called it "one of the most if not the most complex and important table tennis events in history".

Nearly 1,300 people will be encased in the event's bubble.