The ITTF World Cadet Challenge is the sport's premier under-15's tournament, and brings together four boys and four girls from each continent along with the ITTF Hopes Team and a team from the host country to battle it out in a team-style competition.

"I am very happy that the Slovenia Table Tennis Association will host the 2013 Cadet Challenge at such late notice after Turkey handed back the rights for the event," said ITTF President Adham Sharara.

"Slovenia has a lot of experience in staging table tennis events, and the great editions held in Puerto Rico and then Guam have raised the level of this competition, but I am sure that Slovenia will rise to the occasion."

Turkey withdrew its candidacy to host the event 'in order to maximise investment in young Turkish talent and decided to bid for larger international events for the junior athletes,' according to a spokesman. 

'The Turkish Table Federation is in discussion with The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) about hosting future World Veterans Table Tennis Championships and World Table Tennis Championships," they added. 

The ITTF will host a three-day training camp for players prior to the tournament, which is due to take place from October 26 to November 3, which will be run by some of the world's leading coaches.

The World Cadet Challenge has provided a platform for the development of many top table tennis stars, including China's reigning world and Olympic champion Zhang Jike, who was named as the tournament Most Valuable Player at the age of 14 in 2002.

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