National women champion, Fatimo Bello will lead the four-man team named by the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) for the maiden ITTF Western Africa Challenge holding in Abidjan from November 2 to 3, 2019.
Already, the organizers of the two-day tournament- Federation of Ivorian Table Tennis (FITT) have confirmed 39 players made up of 21 men and 18 women for the championship which serves as the regional qualifiers for the 2020 Africa Top 16 Cup.
In the list of players made available to NationSport, Bello will be joined in the women singles by Tosin Oribamise while Jamiu Ayanwale and Augustine Emmanuel will don the colour of Nigeria in Cote d’Ivoire.
The selection of Oribamise, Ayanwale, and Emmanuel was based on their performance in major competitions this year.
Deputy Secretary-General of FITT Ali Kanate said the staging of the tournament would help to showcase the expertise of Cote d’Ivoire in handling the international event: “We thank International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), the African Federation (ATTF) and the President of the West African region for the confidence in us staging the tournament.
“We hope to use this tournament to show our ability in organizing an international event particularly being the maiden edition of the regional tournament. By hosting the first edition of the regional table tennis championship, Côte d’Ivoire is on the map of West Africa as a leading player.
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“Apart from putting up good organization, we want to show our ability as top table tennis playing nation in the region and that is why we have sent our players on a training tour of France in order to make it to the podium at the event,” he added.