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The Nigerian economic hub of Lagos is set to host the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Challenge Plus Nigeria Open table tennis tournament from 7-11 August.
Over 171 players from 32 countries and regions have been confirmed for the tournament with European teams dominating the list with 17 squads from the continent being led by top table tennis playing nations – Austria, Germany and France, organizers announced here on Monday.
The others are Belgium, Croatia, England, Hungary, Italy, Israel, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Slovenia, Slovakia and Sweden.
Nigeria and Egypt will be leading the African teams while Algeria, Benin Republic, Congo Brazzaville, Congo DRC, Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal and South Africa are also expected.
Brazil will represent the South American continent while Asia will be represented by India, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Thailand.
This year’s edition is one of the pioneer tournaments of the ITTF Challenge Plus Series and the fourth of the six ITTF Challenge Plus tournaments in 2019.
The purse of the tournament has been set at 60,000 U.S. dollars split between seven titles on offer: men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, mixed doubles, U-21 men’s singles and U-21 women’s singles.
Wahid Oshodi, chairman of the local organizing committee (LOC), said that the excitement synonymous with the tournament would attract top players to Lagos.
XINHUA
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