THE Media Officer of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), Mr Olalekan Okusan, said on Saturday that the ongoing Challenge Seamaster Nigeria Open was helping to build a mutual relationship between participating countries.

Okusanya made the remark in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of the 5^th edition of the ITTF Challenge Nigeria Open in Lagos.

“Sport knows no colour, it does not know tribe and everybody is a friend in sports,’’ the media officer said.

NAN reports that this year’s edition of the Challenge kicked off on Tuesday, Aug. 8 and will end on Sunday, Aug. 12.

According to him, the Challenge, which started in 2013, has its highest attendance in this year’s edition.

“This competition started with 12 countries in its maiden edition, but this year we have about 27 countries, with a total of 169 players, comprising 101 male and 68 females.’’

NAN reports that there are six categories in the 2018 edition, which include the men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, the U-21 singles male and the U-21 singles female.

The ITTF Challenge Open is recorded as the second biggest challenge series in terms of prize money.

A total of $46,000 dollars in prizes, which is equivalent to over N16.75 million, are to be won by players at the end of the championships. (NAN)

– Aug. 11, 2018 @ 13:49 GMT |