Nigeria’s aquatic city and the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria, Lagos has been chosen by the African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF) as the host of the World Championships regional qualification, African Club Championships and African Cup.
The three tournaments start from May 19 to 28 at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim Balogun Stadium.
The World Championships regional qualification for West Africa teams will kick-start the tournament on May 19 to 21 while the African Club Championships follow on May 23 to 25. The African Cup, which is a singles tournament, will climax the event on May 26 to 28.
According to the President of ATTF, Khaled El-Salhy, the choice of Lagos was based on the remarkable organisation of previous tournaments coupled with 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 boss said the African Cup would now be a continental qualification for 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.”
All the top players in Africa are expected in Lagos for the African Cup as Egypt’s Ahmed Saleh and Dina Meshref are expected to defend their titles against the best players in Africa at the three-day tournament at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim Balogun Stadium.
“All top players will be competing for the Cup, while they will be aiming for ranking points as well as qualification to represent Africa at WTT Cup Finals taking place later in the year,” he added.
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.
Meanwhile, the continental ruling body has approved a nine-man Main Organising Committee (MOC) with Wahid Oshodi as chairman. President of Cote D’ivoire Table Tennis Federation, Prof. Alfred Germain Karou will deputise Oshodi in the MOC.
Other members include the Executive Chairman of Lagos State Sports Commission (LSSC) Sola Aiyepeku, Dr. Adesoji Tayo, Kweku Tandor and Mokhtar Toukabri of Tunisia.
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