The three tournaments will begin from May 19 to 28 at the
Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall, Teslim Balogun Stadium Surulere.
The World Championships regional qualification for West
Africa teams will kick-start the tournament on May 19 to 21 while the African
Club Championships follow on May 23 to 25. The African Cup which is a singles
tournament will climax the event on May 26 to 28.
ATTF President, Khaled El-Salhy confirmed the choice of
Lagos was based on the remarkable organization of previous tournaments coupled
with the positive comments from players, coaches, and participating teams.
“Lagos has the best bid to host the African Cup in 2022
together with the African Clubs, as ATTF is always satisfied with the
remarkable organisation in Lagos coupled with full capacity of spectators in
the venue throughout any major competition,” he said.
The ATTF boss said the African Cup would now be a
continental qualification for WTT Cup Finals. “The new thing is that the ITTF
World Cup may not be held this year and the other option will be the WTT Cup
Finals which will include the same policy that continental cup winners will
represent each continent.”
Top African players are expected in Lagos for the African
Cup where Egypt’s Ahmed Saleh and Dina Meshref are expected to defend their
titles against the best players in Africa at the three-day tournament at the
Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim Balogun Stadium.
“All top players will be competing for the Cup, while they
will be aiming for ranking points as well as qualification to represent Africa
at WTT Cup Finals taking place later in the year,” he added.
For the African Cup, each participating country will
nominate two players each in men’s and women’s events while the host country
will nominate four players each for the cup.
Meanwhile, a nine-man Main Organising Committee (MOC) has
been approved by the continental ruling body with Wahid Oshodi chairing the
committee. President of Cote D’ivoire Table Tennis Federation, Prof. Alfred
Germain Karou will deputise Oshodi in the MOC.
Other members include the Executive Chairman of Lagos State
Sports Commission (LSSC) Sola Aiyepeku, Dr. Adesoji Tayo, Kweku Tandoh and
Tunisia’s Mokhtar Toukabri.