Nigeria has won the hosting rights for the 2014 African top 16 Table Tennis Championship, by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). According to the President of the African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF), Khaled El-Salhy, it was approved based on the recommendation of the Executive Committee of ATTF.
“ITTF has approved Nigeria’s bid and recommendation of ATTF executive committee to stage the 2014 ITTF-Africa Top 16 Cup in Lagos on June 27 to 28 2014. We are confident that the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) 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.”
The Vice President of ATTF, Olabanji Oladapo, also said, “As I said during the Lagos Classics that the classics was a test event that will open doors for other ITTF/ATTF sanctioned competitions for Nigeria. The way it was managed was good and it made it easier for us to push for the Africa Top 16 Cup despite intense lobbying from other African countries to host the competition. We have shown ITTF/ATTF our capacity to organise a good competition and I am sure more opportunities will come our way.”
“Nigeria will get equipment from the ITTF that will be used for the competition and ITTF will also send their experts to Nigeria to train our technical officials in our area of needs.”
