LAGOS has been given the rights to play host to several major table tennis events this year, the state’s sports commission has announced.
The former Nigerian capital has been selected by the African Table Tennis Federation to host of the World Championships regional qualification, African Club Championships and the African Cup.
The three tournaments will be held between 19 May and 28 May at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim Balogun Stadium.
The World Championships regional qualification for West African teams will start off the string of tournaments on 19 May to 21 May, while the African Club Championships follows on 23 May to 25 May. The African Cup, which is a singles tournament, will round off the events from 26 May to 28 May.
The President of ATTF, Khaled El-Salhy, said the choice of Lagos was based on the impressive organisation of previous tournaments in the state as well as the positive comments from players, coaches, and participating teams.
“Lagos has the best bid to host the African Cup in 2022 together with the African Clubs, as ATTF is always satisfied with the remarkable organisation in Lagos coupled with full capacity of spectators in the venue throughout any major competition,” he said.
The ATTF head noted that the African Cup would now be a continental qualification for the WTT Cup Finals.
“The new thing is that the ITTF World Cup may not be held this year and the other option will be the WTT Cup Finals which will include the same policy that continental cup winners will represent each continent,” El-Salhy explained.
Egypt’s Ahmed Saleh and Dina Meshref are expected in Lagos for the African Cup to defend their titles against the continent’s top players at the three-day tournament.
For the African Cup, each participating country will nominate two players each in men’s and women’s events while the host country will nominate four players each for the cup.
A nine-man Main Organising Committee has been approved by the continental ruling body, with Nigeria’s Wahid Oshodi as chairman.
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