The African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF) has formally confirmed Nigeria and Egypt as the continent’s flag bearers at the 2019 ITTF World Junior Championships (WJC) holding in Thailand in November.
The confirmation was conveyed on Thursday in a press statement by ITTF-Africa, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
The ITTF-Africa (Africa Table Tennis Federation) is responsible for the sport of table tennis within the African continent. ITTF-Africa has 54 affiliated National Associations.
According to the statement the two continent’s superpowers will compete in the boys and girls categories at the global meet with Nigeria making a return after two years absence from the continental qualifiers.
Nigeria and Egypt were named after emerging as the finalists in the junior boys and girls team events of the 2019 ITTF African Junior and Cadet Championships held in Accra, Ghana from April 7 to 13.
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Nigeria defeated Egypt 3-0 to emerge as champion in the boys’ cadre while Egypt also repeated same result against Nigeria in the girls’ final.
Also, an eight-man team has been named as African team for the 2019 World Cadet Challenge (WCC) holding in Poland on October 2019.
The girls’ team will be led by African cadet champion – Egypt’s Hana Goda while Nigeria’s Taiwo Matti will spearhead the boys’ team.
Other members of the girls’ team include Nigeria’s Sukurat Aiyelabegan, Tunisia’s Maram Zoghlami and Algeria’s Melissa Belache.
Nigeria’s Taiwo Matti would be joined in the boys’ team by Tunisia’s Habib Ameur, Egypt’s Mohamed Sameh and Algeria’s Abderrahmane Azzala.
To prepare the African Team for WCC, plans are underway by the continental body to organise a camp in Egypt few weeks before the competition in Poland. (NAN)
