Monthly Archives: January 2021

The Novel Coronavirus has brought the world to its knees. Causing suspension of major events around the globe. For this reason, the African Table Tennis Federation has decided to publish a newsletter every quarter to inform player, coaches and administrators of happenings in the game on the African continent .

These are some of the highlights of this quarters newsletter:

• The president of ATTF remarks.
• Mohamed Saleh still up for the game at the age of 41.
• Excitement envelops Africa over Duban 2023.
• 2020 ITTF virtual AGM.
• Top 20 men and women in African Table Tennis.
• The golden rules of the serve.
• Kenyan computer scientist in search of global glory.
• Quadri Aruna lifts Nigerian Paralympians in the Tokyo Olympic medal bid.
• African stars relish restart experience in China.

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African Table Tennis Federation

Aruna, Omotayo, others for WTT tournaments in Qatar

Quadri Aruna and Olajide Omotayo are among the top African stars listed for the first official events of the World Table Tennis (WTT) in Qatar on March 3 to 13.

The two events which have $600,000 as prize money will take place at Lusail Sports Arena in Doha.

According to the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), the Middle East Hub will feature two tiers of the new WTT event structure with WTT Contender Doha kick-starting the tournament before players move onto the first WTT Star Contender event the following week, providing the perfect preparation for some of the world’s leading stars to be challenged by the best up-and-coming athletes in table tennis.

Aruna who is the highest-rated African in the world ranked 21 will join world-class talent set to light up Doha in the men’s events such as Xu Xin (China, world-ranked 2), Tomokazu Harimoto (Japan, WR 5), Hugo Calderano (Brazil, WR 6) and Lin Yun-Ju (Chinese Taipei, WR 7). Other elite players taking to the table, including Mattias Falck (Sweden, WR 8), Jang Woojin (Korea Republic, WR 11), and Dimitrij Ovtcharov (Germany, WR 12) in the men’s draw.

However, Omotayo, Taiwo Mati, and Nurudeen Hassan have been listed to compete in the qualifiers for WTT Contender Doha from February 28 to March 2 with successful players listed for the main event on March 3 to 6.

Omotayo is expected to fight for a place in the main event from the qualifiers while Mati and Hassan are among the reserve players to be considered after the list of players has been finalized by the organizers.

Aruna is one of the top 10 players in the world listed for the two events that will start his campaigns from the main event of the championships.

The WTT Contender event will feature a singles main draw of 32 players per gender and 16-pair doubles per gender and in the mixed doubles. The qualifying draw will feature 96 players per gender in the singles and 32 pairs in the mixed doubles with $200,000 as prize money.

The qualifying round of the WTT Star Contender Doha will commence on March 6 to 7 while the main event will hold from March 8 to 13.

The WTT Star Contender event will consist of a singles main draw of 48 players per gender and 16-pair doubles per gender and in the mixed doubles. The qualifying draw will feature 64 players per gender in the singles and 32 pairs in the mixed doubles while the prize money is $400,000.

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Nigeria Table Tennis Federation

The year 2020 has come to an end and would be remembered as one of the years in which the world saw lots of lives being lost to the Novel Coronavirus.

However, before Covid-19 times were normal and the Ghana Table Tennis Association organized its first tournament of the year, The Chairmans Cup in February. The event was a success which saw players from different age categories competing in various divisions.

Emmanuel Kwesi Asante a player of the Ghana Immigration Service, who played in the senior category and represented Ghana in the last Common Wealth games put up a splendid performance to emerge as the third-best player in the senior division. He lost to the eventual winner, Emmanuel Commey of Ghana Immigration Service, in a keenly contested semi-final match.

For his sterling display coupled with his exceptional leadership style, the Executive Committee of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has reappointed Nigeria’s Wahid Enitan Oshodi as the Chairman of its Nomination Committee for another term of office.

In a statement signed by ITTF Secretary General, Raul Calin, the composition of the Nominations Committee chaired by Oshodi for the term 2020-2022 was confirmed at the ITTF Executive Committee meeting held on Monday December 21 2020.

Oshodi, Vice President, ITTF Africa Western Region rose from being a member of the committee as the first Nigerian and African to chair the highest committee in the world body is expected to serve for another two-year term (2020-2022) with most of its former members returning with the exception of one new member who is joining the team for the first time.

Oshodi, a former president of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) and the brain behind Africa’s elite table tennis tournament, ITTF Challenge Nigeria Open will lead the six-man committee with Qatar’s Abdulla Al-Mulla as his deputy while other members of the committee are Sandra Deaton (England), Andreas Georgiou (Cyprus), Lofti Guerfel (Tunisia) and Kook-Hee An (Korea Republic).

ITTF President, Thomas Weikert and ITTF CEO Steve Dainton as well as Presidents of the Continental Federations and Executive Committee as Masahiro Maehara (Japan) as part of the Ex-officio members in the committee.

The President of African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF) Khaled El-Salhy described Oshodi’s re-appointment as a plus to Africa.

“I have the great pleasure to congratulate you on behalf of all my colleagues of ATTF Executive Council (EC) for the full trust from ITTF EC to renew your assignment as the Chairman of the ITTF Nominations Committee for the coming period (2020-2022). Such congratulation is not only for you personally but also for all Africa to secure such an important mission in favour of our continent due to your great efforts and hard work in all fields as usual,” he said.