Lagos Para Open 2022 makes ITTF calendar

The Valuejet Lagos Para Table Tennis Open has been listed among the Factor 20 events in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) 2022 calendar. Valuejet Lagos Para Open is the second para tournament to be staged in Africa in 2022 after Egypt Open and it has joined the growing list of elite para tournaments to […]

The Valuejet Lagos Para Table Tennis Open has been listed among the Factor 20 events in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) 2022 calendar.

Valuejet Lagos Para Open is the second para tournament to be staged in Africa in 2022 after Egypt Open and it has joined the growing list of elite para tournaments to be sanctioned as a ranking and evaluation event for top players across the globe by the world table tennis ruling body.

According to ITTF Head of Para, Pablo Pérez, the decision to sanction and list Valuejet Lagos Para Open was based on the evaluation of the ITTF team coupled with the experience of Nigeria in staging a world title event.

“After organizing the event three years in a row from 2019 to 2021, the Nigerian federation finally felt prepared to ask for the sanctioning. They invited ITTF to send an inspector to watch the event and evaluate the conditions and the conclusions were positive,” he said.

With this development, the ITTF official said: “I expect to have many players from as many different African countries as possible. Para TT has a great potential in Africa. Nigeria and Egypt have many international players but we want to see many more different countries, so the competition level will increase,” Perez enthused.

The last Para TT which was held less than two months ago was attended by different players including the trio of Tokyo 2020 Paralympians, Isua Ogunkunle, Faith Obazuaye and Olufemi Alabi.