ITTF names North African officials for 2016 Nigerian Open

The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has named Egypt’s Mohamed Dawlatly and Nabil Almamoon as competition manager and referee, while Algeria’s Boudjehem Abdallah is the assistant referee for this year’s ITTF Premier Lotto Nigerian Open (Lagos 2016), which will hold from May 18 to 22 at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos.

Mohamed Dawlatly is an Information Technology (IT) expert with the world table tennis ruling body and an experienced competition manager whose last duty was at the World Team Championship in Malaysia.

For Nabil Almamoon, it his fourth visit to Nigeria having handled the three previous editions in Lagos.

For his understanding of the game, as well his performance in previous editions, Almamoon will be in Lagos and he will be assisted by Algeria’s Boudjehem Abdallah, who was the referee at the 2016 ITTF African Junior & Cadet Championships held in Algiers.

According to tournament director, Oluranti Lajide, more than 30 officials will handle proceedings at the championship with Benin Republic, Togo and Cameroun being represented.

Also, 26 Nigerian international and national umpires will be on duty while a refresher course for the officials will precede the kick-off of the competition.

“We are also going to update the knowledge of all the officials handling matches at the tournament because there are new rules and regulations, which they must also be acquainted with. We are organising a refresher course for all selected umpires and this will be handled by an expert from ITTF, Malaysia’s Cyril Sen,” Olajide said.

The ITTF Premier Lotto Nigerian Open is the highest prize money tournament in the Challenge Series of the ITTF World Tour, with players jostling for $46,000 (N13.8m).

Six events are to be competed for, including singles (men and women); doubles (men and women) as well as U-21 boys and girls.