Reigning Commonwealth Games champion India, Kenya, Uganda, Benin Republic, Togo, South Africa and hosts Nigeria top the list of African countries billed to compete at this year’s Valuejet ITTF Lagos Para Open.
The two-day event holds from 12 to 14 October at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos.
This year’s tournament will see players compete in the singles, mixed doubles and doubles events to prepare them ahead of the Paralympic Games.
Speaking at the event’s press conference in Lagos on Tuesday, Chairman of the Local Organising Committee, Sunday Odebode, said the tournament had received the full sanction of the world table tennis body ITTF.
He said, “We are so happy that the tournament is now Factor 20 on the ITTF calendar, which means players aiming to qualify for the Paralympic Games can compete and pick the necessary points to shore up their rankings.
“Now that it is fully sanctioned by ITTF, we are hopeful that more countries will identify with the tournament in the near future.
In his remarks, ITTF Para Events and Classification Manager Pablo Perez lauded the organisers of the annual tournament as an avenue to develop the players and the sport.
“I am so excited that this tournament has continued to improve the Nigerian players and this was reflected in their performance at the just-concluded African Championships where nine of them qualified for the Paralympic Games in Paris next year.
“I can see that more players are coming through and this is the result of regular tournaments for players and this has confirmed Nigeria as the best in Africa and one of the top teams in the world. I’m so excited returning to Nigeria and I hope that more teams and countries will be coming to be part of the tournament following the exploits of Nigerian players in major competitions across the world”, Perez said.
Head of Business Development, Valuejet, Temitope Ajijola, said the company would continue to support para-sports, especially with the impressive display of the athletes in Egypt, where nine of them picked their tickets to Paris 2024.
“Apart from our businesses, sports remain our second priority and with what we are seeing in para-table tennis, we are encouraged to do more and we are committed and will continue to support the sport across the country”, he said.
