At least 64 players in the U-15 and U-19 categories will compete at the First Daniel Ford International Elite Youth Invitational National Table Tennis Championships.
The championship will be held from December 21 to 22 at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos.
The tournament is sponsored by UK-based property firm Daniel Ford International and organized by the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF).
The founder and CEO of Daniel Ford International, Yemi Edun, said the decision to organize the championship intends to identify potential players and advance table tennis in the nation.
He added that the tournament was borne out of his passion for the sport, having grown up in the Surulere area of Lagos, considered Nigeria’s sports capital.
He said, “Table tennis was widely played at homes and on the streets growing up, but I also lived in Surulere, which was and still is, to some extent, the sports capital of Nigeria.
“The National Stadium located in Surulere is also known as Sports City, and living in this neighbourhood made me acutely aware of all things sport, including table tennis. Aside from that, I grew up when table tennis legends like Atanda Musa were routinely featured on the front pages of national newspapers,” he said.
The tournament will be played in a round-robin format, with the 16 (boys and girls each) in U-15 and 16 (boys and girls each) in U-19 would be drawn into a group of four, with the top two in each group advancing to the knockout stage of the tournament.
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