National Table Tennis Championship «Báo Nhân Dân» (44th edition)

   Vietnamese table tennis settles its national title once a year, and this season the tables are set up in Hai Phong, long regarded as the cradle of the sport in the country. For nine days you can sit a few metres from the play and watch the best paddlers in the country fight for every point.

   Fourteen delegations are entered — Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong, Khanh Hoa, Hung Yen, Lam Dong, Nghe An, Thanh Hoa, Dong Nai, Vinh Long, Tay Ninh, Ca Mau, the Army and the People's Public Security — fielding nearly 140 players. Seven sets of medals are on the line: men's and women's team, men's and women's singles, men's, women's and mixed doubles, plus awards for the most promising young man and woman.

   What gives the week its edge is what the results are worth. This is the opening sport of the 10th National Sports Games of 2026, and every point scored here goes straight into the Games medal table. No delegation can afford to hold anyone back for later.

   The championship has been run by Nhân Dân newspaper without a break since 1982; this is the 44th edition, played for the Ca Mau Fertilizer Cup. Head of the organising committee Tạ Quang Dũng said bringing the event to Hai Phong adds meaning to it. From 3 to 5 August the same hall hosts a warm-up, the National Open mixed-team tournament, with around 20 teams and more than 120 players.

   The hall sits in the western half of the enlarged city, in Lê Thanh Nghị ward, roughly an hour and a half by road from the old port centre — worth planning if you are staying by the sea. For anyone whose only experience of the sport is a television screen, the real speed of the ball at close range is the surprise of the trip.

   Pick a delegation on day one and follow it to the final — that is how a tournament turns into a story you remember.