12th February, 2015
Top Nigerian stars are lined up to participate in this year’s International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Tour tagged Lagos Open.
The current ITTF Star Player, Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri and Africa’s most decorated table tennis player, Segun Toriola have confirmed their participation in the tournament while home-based stars like Kazeem Makanjuola, Hameed Adeyinka and Rashidat Ogundele will also be part of the competition.
Plans are in top gear by the organizers to stage a befitting tournament just like it has done in the two previous editions, which were adjudged one of the best organized Pro Tour in the ITTF calendar.
Meanwhile, the organisers of the tournament have however hiked the prize money of the tournament from $39,000 (N7.8m) to $46,000 (N9.2m).
Also, the events to be competed for have been increased to six from four. For this year’s tournament, players will compete in singles (men and women), doubles (men and women) as well as U-21 boys and girls.
The five-day competition will take place at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim Balogun in Lagos and it will serve off on March 10 to 14. The ITTF ranking event will help players taking part amass points for their world rating in March
According to the prospectus released by ITTF on its website, Egypt’s Nabil Almamoon and Algeria’s Mounir Bessah have been named the referee and competition manager respectively while Nigeria’s Lajide Oluranti is the tournament director.
More players from Africa and Europe have also signified their intention to be part of the championship, which has been entrenched in the ITTF calendar.