The fourth Valuejet Para-Table Tennis Open serves off on Thursday (today) at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of the Teslim Balogun Stadium, organisers of the competition informed PUNCH Sports Extra.
The three-day tournament will see over 100 athletes battling for honours in 38 events.
The tourney will also be used to select players to represent Nigeria at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris, France.
Commonwealth silver medalists Ifechukwude Ikpeoyi, Nasiru Sule, Isau Ogunkunle and Faith Obazuaye are expected to feature in the event.
According to the tournament coordinator, Sunday Odebode, the top four players will be rewarded with cash prizes.
“The Para-table tennis players made the country proud in Birmingham and we believe this tournament would provide a good platform for them to test their might against themselves and we hope we can pick the Paris 2024 team from here,” he said.
Vice President, Nigeria Table Tennis Federation, Adesoji Tayo, praised the sponsors for keeping faith with the special athletes, adding that this would continue to motivate the players to give their best in a major competition.
“The federation is grateful to our sponsors and the Lagos State Sports Commission, who have not given up on the athletes with their continued support of the tournament despite the economic situation.
“We were also motivated by the athletes’ performance at the Commonwealth Games because they were the ones that won medals for table tennis in Birmingham.”
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