Being the highest prize money tournament in Africa, the tournament is being
organized by the Main Organising Committee of Lagos International Sports
Classics in collaboration with the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation
(NTTF).
Players and teams across the globe are expected to feature
in the tournament holding at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim
Balogun Stadium from August 26 to 31 with 10 events to be jostled
for by the players.
According to the chairman of the
organising committee and President of NTTF, Wahid Oshodi, the
championship is open to all ITTF affiliated associations, while
junior events will be for players born on or after January 1, 1995.
Winners in the men and women singles will get $5,000 and $4,000 respectively
while players that make it to round of 16 of the singles event will
get cash reward.
"We believe that organising this competition
will help our players and expose them to other top players from
other nations. We are hoping that it will be an annual event will
help to improve the lot of the sport in the country," Oshodi said.
He added that tournament is made possible by the support of the private
sector and the Lagos State Government.
Deadline for players’
entry has been fixed for August 13, while qualifying matches in all
events for Nigerian based players hold on August 22 to 23.
ATTF President, Khaled El-Salhy, congratulated the board of NTTF for putting
such tournament together in such a short period of assumption of office
and such championship is long overdue.
“I want to commend the
NTTF board for their ingenuity and I am so happy that Nigeria with
its remarkable traditional weight in sports and specially table
tennis can agree to organise the tournament. I am hoping for a
resounding success and one of my missions is to assess the
organization as well as facilities.
organization as well as facilities.
We also want to use this event as a test for
ITTF/ATTF title event in the near future,” the ATTF boss said.
With this, El-Salhy disclosed that Nigeria might be considered for major
tournament in 2014.
His words: “ITTF/ATTF is looking to organize a
brand new event next year tagged "2014 ITTF-Africa Top 16 Cup"
which should be in the second half of June 2014 as qualification for
ITTF World Cups next year, and we believe it will be good to start
this competition in Nigeria. As I am
hoping for a successful 2013, as well as envisaging that the Lagos International Classics will be among the ITTF World Tour Calendar in 2014 and this is to prove to ITTF that Africa could host sanctioned events in a professional way.”
hoping for a successful 2013, as well as envisaging that the Lagos International Classics will be among the ITTF World Tour Calendar in 2014 and this is to prove to ITTF that Africa could host sanctioned events in a professional way.”
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