With the expiration of players’ registration for this year’s International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Tour tagged Lagos Open, Egypt, Portugal, Russia, seven others as well as host – Nigeria have been confirmed for the five-day tournament holding next month in Lagos.
According to the list of confirmed players by ITTF, Egyptian team will be led by current ITTF Africa Senior champion, Omar Assar, who he will be joined by 12 compatriots including current African women champion, Dina Meshref.
Also, Portugal has the trio of Diogo Silva, Andre Silva and Jieni Shao, while Russia will be represented by Irina Ermakova.
Iran will be debuting at the tournament with the duo of Afshin Noroozi and Nima Alamian coming to Lagos, while other teams like Benin, Cameroon, Congo DRC, Djibouti, Sierra Leone and Togo will also be part of the $46,000 prize money championship holding from March 10 to 14 at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of the Teslim Balogun Stadium.
Nigeria will be led by the current ITTF star player, Aruna Quadri , while veteran and six-time Olympian, Segun Toriola, will also be part of the contingent.
For the women event, Nigeria will be represented by Germany-based Funke Oshonaike, Portugal-based Edem Offiong and winner of the maiden edition of the tournament, Cecilia Otu-Akpan.
Over 100 players have been listed for the tournament, which is the second challenge series in the ITTF World Tour calendar after the Hungary Open held in January.
According to the Tournament Director, Oluranti Lajide, this year’s tournament is unique as all eyes will be on Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri and Egypt’s warlords led by bespectacled Omar Assar, who made the biggest move in the latest ranking this month by moving from 57 to 43 in the world.
“From the quality of players coming for this year’s championship, it is obvious that the feat achieved by Quadri has really attracted more players to this tournament and everybody is eager to face the ITTF star player.
“The Egyptians will surely be aiming to defend the title they won last year and for the Nigeria female team, this is another opportunity to prove critics wrong about the dwindling fortune in the game. Being the year of the All Africa Games, most Nigerian players knew that this is an avenue for them to play their way into the national team and it is going to be exciting,” Lajide said.
