TheCable

The organisers of this year’s International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Tour tagged Lagos Open, have hiked the prize money from $39,000 (N7.8m) to $46,000 (N9.2m) to attract more world class players to the event.

The five-day competition which will take place at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim Balogun in Lagos between March 10 and 14 will see the events competed for increase to six from four.

Players will compete in singles (men and women), doubles (men and women) as well as U-21 boys and girls.

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

The current ITTF Star Player, Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri and Africa’s most decorated table tennis player, Segun Toriola have confirmed their participation in the tournament while home-based stars like Kazeem Makanjuola, Hameed Adeyinka and Rashidat Ogundele will also be part of the competition.

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.