ITTF World Cadet Challenge: Animasahun Listed In ITTF Hopes Team.

Nigeria’s Abayomi Animasahun has been listed in the ITTF Hopes Team selected for this year’s World Cadet Challenge in Egypt.

The selection was based the performance at the just concluded ITTF Hopes Week and Challenge in China with the team made up of four boys and four girls that will be catered for by the world table tennis ruling body.

To achieve this feat, Animasahun played second fiddle to United States’ Nikhil Kumar to be among the four-man boys’ team.

The teenager will be joined in the team by American Kumar, Singapore’s Yan Kai Andy Wong and New Zealand’s Nathan Xu.

In the girls’ team, winner of the ITTF Hopes Challenge, Egypt’s Sara Elhakem, India’s Diya Parag Chitale, Russia’s Elizabet Abraamian and El Salvador’s Melissa Mendoza in the girls’ team.

The 2015 ITTF World Cadet Challenge will be staged in the historic Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheik from Friday October 23 to 31.

The eight-man team will be supported by Butterfly with the selection meeting one of the main objectives of the ITTF Hopes Programme; that every member continent of ITTF is represented.
 
The winner of the Boys’ Singles and Girls’ Singles events at the Challenge Tournament, Nikhil Kumar and Sara Elhakem, gained automatic selection.
 
The remaining three places for boys and three places for girls were based on a combination of coaches’ assessment in Shanghai and results at the Challenge Tournament.
 

The players will attend a 14-day training camp at a venue yet to be determined prior to travelling to Egypt.

Now the next step is for national associations to endorse the relevant selections; the deadline date being Friday July 31.

Dejan Papic, the ITTF Education and Training Co-ordinator is the Mentor of the Hopes Team, Polona Cehovin Susin, the ITTF Education and Training Director, is the Team Manager.