ITTF names Egypt, South Africa officials for Africa Cup

The world table tennis ruling body International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has named Egyptian and South African officials for the forthcoming Africa Cup taking place in Lagos from May 26 to 28.

Egypt’s Mohamed El-Dawlatly is the competition manager while Africa’s most experienced female referee Genevieve Lentz of South Africa will handle proceedings at the continental elite tournament.

El-Dawlatly has been part of the ITTF for years while he has been part of the technical team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan; he has also been part of several international competitions across the globe. He was the competition manager of the Nigeria Open in 2018 while his experience will come to the fore in Lagos when the best players in Africa converge in Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre Lagos for the elite tournament which serves as qualifiers for the WTT Cup Finals.

Like El-Dawlatly, Lentz was part of the ITTF referee team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games while she was the referee at the last World University Games in Italy and she will be heading to Lagos as an experienced official.

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According to the tournament’s prospectus, each country is expected to nominate two players each in men's and women's events while the host – Nigeria will present four men and four women. Egypt as the men and women defending champions will have three men and three women for the event.

The events shall be played in a round-robin format with five players drawn in each group with the top two players in each group advancing to the second stage of the tournament.

The allotment of the players in groups will take place according to the latest African ranking list of May 2022.

Nigeria’s Oshodi elected as ITTF Vice President in the US

Earlier, Sports Brief reported that Nigeria’s Wahid Enitan Oshodi has been elected as the Executive Vice President of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on Wednesday, November 24 in Houston, Texas, in the United States.

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From the 136 votes casted, Oshodi polled 116 which is 85.29% of the total vote to emerge top among the 14 candidates that were vying for the office of the Executive Vice Presidents.

Oshodi is the second Nigerian to be elected to the world body after Segun George and he will serve along with seven other Executive Vice Presidents elected at the AGM.