TABLE TENNIS: Lagos to host world championship in 2023

The International Table Tennis Federation has confirmed that Lagos will host the World Table Tennis Championship contender in 2023.

This was made public by the World Table Tennis on Wednesday as part of the first half of its events calendar for the 2023 season.

Durban in South Africa will be the first Africa to host the contender in January before Lagos host in June.

The Molade Okoya Thomas indoor hall of the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere will be the venue.

Durban and Lagos will join Tunis as the third African cities in the calendar.

The Last time Lagos hosted the rest of the world in international table tennis was in 2019 during the ITTF challenge plus although Lagos has hosted other Africans.

The state was preparing for the 2020 ITTF Challenge plus before COVID-19 made the organisers postpone it indefinitely and since then Lagos has not hosted the world.

The Chairman of the Local Organising Committee, Wahid Enitan Oshodi said;

"We are pained that we have to cancel the tournament this year because all plans were in place to stage a befitting tournament while our sponsors are also looking forward to an exciting tournament considering what we witnessed in 2019."

"But we are constrained by this pandemic to cancel this year's edition and we are looking forward to being part of the new World Table Tennis (WTT) series in 2021," he added.

Meanwhile, African Number table tennis player, Quadri Aruna is the only African player to play at the world table tennis championship. He achieved the feat in Qatar.