Lagos ITTF World Tour media accreditation begins

THE accreditation of journalists for the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Tour, tagged Lagos Open, begins today and ends on February 21, the organisers have announced.

  According to the organisers, journalists are expected to forward their full names and medium to media@nttf.com.ng, while photojournalists are also expected to signify their designation.

  The organizers also announced an increase in the prize money from $39,000 (N7.8m) to $46,000 (N9.2m), while the events have been increased from four to six. 

  For this year’s tournament, players will compete in singles (men and women), doubles (men and women), as well as U-21 boys and girls.

  The five-day competition will take place at the Molade Okoya-Thomas  Hall of Teslim Balogun in Lagos from March 10 to 14. 

 The ITTF ranking event will help players taking part amass points for  their world rating in March.

  According to the prospectus released by ITTF, Egypt’s Nabil Almamoon  and Algeria’s Mounir Bessah have been named the referee and competition  manager respectively, while Nigeria’s Lajide Oluranti is the tournament director.

  More players from Africa and Europe have also signified their intention to be part of the championship, which has been entrenched in the ITTF calendar.