One of Nigeria’s highest ranked umpires, John Peters has appealed to states and corporate bodies in the country to support Team Nigeria in its quest to be part of this year’s ITTF World Junior Championship holding later this month in Cape Town, South Africa. Peters, who officiated at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil […]
via Ahead of ITTF World Junior Championship: Peters Seeks Support For Team Nigeria — newfanzoneblog
Nigeria will not only have Table Tennis players in action at the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, two of Nigeria’s foremost umpires, John Peters and Cecilia Arinye have been confirmed by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) as match officials for the multi-sports championship in Brazil.
With Aruna Quadri and Funke Oshonaike already confirmed for the Rio Olympic Games, the certified ITTF blue badge umpires, Peters and Arinye will be among the 47 umpires listed by the world table tennis ruling body for the tournament.
Globally, few umpires make it to the Olympic Games but again this has confirmed Nigeria’s relevance in table tennis with Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria being the only countries in Africa with officials at the games.
Peters, who is among the longest serving umpires in Africa, will officiate at the Olympic Games while Arinye, who is the Director of Sports, University of Lagos will be in action at the Paralympic Games.
The duo have joined the list of few umpires in the world to make it to the Olympic while the late Patience Ikeme-Iwuno was among the four umpires selected from Africa for the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Peters, who started his officiating career in the 1970s became an international umpire in 1980 and he has officiated at various African Games including the 2015 edition in Congo Brazzaville, he was also at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland while Arinye, an ex-international is also an experienced umpire who has officiated in various international tournaments across the globe was also part of the umpire team at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Besides Peters and Arinye, Algeria’s duo of Mouhssene Yahia-Cherif and Abdellah Boudjehem will handle proceedings at the Olympic and Paralympic Games respectively while Egypt’s pair of Magdy Edriss and ElSaied Ragab will be on duty as well in Brazil.
According to the President, African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF), Khaled El-Salhy, the listing of umpires from Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria again confirmed the giant stride made by the these countries in terms of officiating.
For the list of umpires for Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Africa (3), Europe (7), Asia (6), Latin America (3), North America (2) and Oceania (1) totalling 22 while for the Paralympic Games, Africa (3), Asia (7), Europe (8), Latin America (3), North America (2) and Oceania (2) making it 25 officials.
However, South Africa’s Rodrique Volkwyn is the Deputy Referee for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has listed two Nigerian umpires to be on duty at the 2015 All African Games holding in Congo Brazzaville.
The umpires – John Peters and Cecilia Arinye, who are among the top rated official in the world will be handling proceedings in the table tennis event of the multi-sports championships.
The duo also officiated at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland and they have handled matches at world and continental championships.
Peters is the longest serving table tennis umpire in Nigeria having officiated at the 1973. 1987, 2003, 2007 and 2011 African Games and for his uprightness and understanding of the game, he was appointed to officiate the finals of the 2013 World Junior Championships in Morocco and 2014 Commonwealth Games in Scotland.
His recent engagement was being the deputy referee at the just concluded 2015 ITTF African Clubs Championships in Cameroon.
Arinye, a former national player is the director of sports, University of Lagos has also officiated at previous African Games and he is one of the respected umpires in Africa.
After one day rest, action will return to the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim Balogun Stadium on Friday as the final of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) national league holds.
Eight teams will compete in the knockout stage for places in the semifinal stage of the men’s event. In the women’s category, four teams will battle for places in the final.
Other teams will slug it out with favourites like Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and Union Bank Sports Club.
The NSCDC team will be led by Kazeem Makanjuola and Ganiyu Ashimiyu while the Union Bank female team will be spearheaded by Fatimo Bello and Halimotu Ayinla against highly-rated NSCDC inspired by National Sports Festival champion, Rashidat Ogundele.
For the pairing in the men’s round of eight, NSCDC will face Nigeria Police Force while Union Maritime will face G-20.
Springfresh Smashers will clash against Union Bank while IAR&T battles Sunshine of Akure for places in the last four.
The Union Bank’s duo of Fatimo Bello and Halimot Ayinla will spearhead the bankers’ team campaign when the team takes on the Nigeria Police Force team led by Sidi Yaya for a place in the final.
In the second semifinal tie, highly-rated NSCDC ladies will battle Springfresh Smashers.
Prior to the commencement of the league, Sunshine’s Boboye Adeniyan admitted that they are ready to confront any team in their bid to repeat the feat they achieved during the pilot league.
“I know it is going to be tough and we can also do what we did during the pilot league. It is obvious that it is a tall order for us in the final but we are indeed in top form to battle any opposition that may come our way,” Adeniyan said.
Also Makanjuola said they will be unstoppable for the title. “I don’t think we will play to the gallery unlike what happened to us when we started the league. This is the final and we have to be at our best if we want to clinch the title. We are battle ready and I am sure we will lift the trophy,” Makanjuola said.
With N2.5m at stake as prize money, the federation has said that the finale will be glamorous as top dignitaries.
Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) has fixed October 9 for the official kick off of its national league.
According to the Secretary of NTTF, Chinedu Ezealah-Ogundare, the league became necessary following the success of the pilot league staged early this year, while 30 teams across the country are expected to take part in the tournament holding at the National Stadium in Lagos.
Four players are expected to make up a team and the Olympics system of play would be used in order to acquaint the players with the new format of play.
Also, the new International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) approved plastic balls will be during the competition in order to acquaint the players with the new balls.
According to the national coach, Nosiru Bello, the new ITTF approved balls would be deployed during the competition as this ball would be used in most ITTF major competitions including the forthcoming African Championships holding in November in Sudan.
According to the referee of the competition, John Peters, the tournament would also help the federation to select players for the forthcoming African Championship while individual performance would be considered in the final selection of the players.
In the prospectus, the league would involve 20 male and 10 female teams made up of four players per team and they are expected to garner points to qualify for the top eight and top four, which is the grand finale holding on October 17 at the Teslim Balogun Stadium.
The deadline of team’s registration has been fixed for October 3 while teams are expected to arrive Lagos for the competition on October 8 to finalise their registration for the championship scheduled to hold at the knock-up hall of the National Stadium.
“We want to ensure that our players are in top shape for major competitions and this is one of the ways we want to achieve this. Also, we are going to use it to select the remaining two slots in the male national team for the African Championship holding in Sudan. Already three players have been penciled down based on their performance in recent times and we also want to give the local players the opportunity to be part of the team and that is why we are going to use the competition to pick the remaining two players.
In the female category, we are hoping that we can pick the best to represent the country in Sudan. We want to be selecting players based on their recent form and with this tournament we will do this,” the NTTF scribe said.
Among the teams lined up for the league are Union Bank Sports Club, Springfresh, Union Maritime, Police Machine, G20, Nigerian Civil Defence Corps, Sunshine of Akure, Calabar Rovers, Rivers Angel and a host of others.
To ensure that only certified and qualified officials handle proceedings at the Lagos World Tour tagged Nigeria Open, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has listed 36 umpires for the four-day tournament.
The umpires were drawn from Nigeria, Ghana, Algeria, Libya, Togo, Congo Brazzaville and Benin while Malaysia’s Cyril Sen and Netherlands’ Albert Roojimans will coordinate the affairs during the tournament.
According to Main Organising Committee (MOC), the total number of countries expected to officiate at the championship exceeded the number recommended by ITTF. The umpire are made up of 22 male and 14 female.
Also on Wednesday, a three-day tournament organization course will take place at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall while there will be two-day technical training for the officials.
According to the coordinator of the training, John Peters, the exercise would surely help Nigerian players to get graded by top officials from ITTF.
“For us this is a rare opportunity for our referees to be acquainted with the latest rules in the game as well as get graded by ITTF.
We are pleased to have this and I hope that our officials will do their best to get graded.
This kind of training is organized mostly in Europe and other parts of the world where most times, the officials are expected to sponsor themselves there.
But as we are hosting the World Tour, ITTF has decided to organize the exercise in Nigeria,” Peters said.
The tournament organization course will commence on Wednesday June 18 to 20, while the Certified Basic Referees Course holds on June 21.
The Advanced Umpires Training/Advanced Rules Examination will hold on June 22 and two ITTF experts will conduct it.
Meanwhile, Singapore, Russia and Luxembourg are expected to arrive on Saturday while other teams will touch down in Lagos this weekend as well.
15 countries have been confirmed for the four-day N6.4m prize money championship serving off on Monday June 23 to 26.
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