ITTF, Nigeria to host 2014 African Top 16 Cup

Aruna Quadri of Nigeria

The International Table Tennis Federation has granted Nigeria the hosting right for the 2014 African Top 16.

According to the President of the African Table Tennis Federation, Khaled El-Salhy, the bid was approved based on the recommendation of the ATTF.

The ATTF president wrote, “This is to confirm that ITTF has approved the bid of Nigeria and recommendation of ATTF Executive Committee to stage the 2014 ITTF-Africa Top 16 Cup in Lagos from June 27 to 28, 2014.

We are confident the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation can organise a Continental/World Title event quite successfully. The Lagos Classics was quite successful in terms of media coverage, while the turnout of spectators really gave a good image to the event.

Moreover, the technical benefit for Nigerian players was also a big gain.”

He added, “The Lagos Classics was a pilot project for Nigeria and ATTF to use the media coverage to promote advertising/sponsorship resources, as well as the expected technical promotion for all African players especially Nigerian players.”

With the tournament already listed in the ITTF calendar for 2014, ATTF vice president, Olabanji Oladapo, believes Nigeria would derive a lot of gains from staging the championship.

An excited NTTF president, Wahid Oshodi, describes this development

as a sign of good things to come to the sport in Nigeria.

“We are pleased that the ATTF has granted the NTTF the hosting rights to the new premier competition in Africa. This is fallout of the successful Lagos Classics, which we recently held and it is recognition of the hard work the NTTF has put in over the last three months in developing the game in Nigeria,” Oshodi said.