Ishaku Tikon, the President of Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) has disclosed that the body is considering organizing the Nigeria Open Table Tennis Tournament, which was delayed due to the raving pandemic across the globe.
He posited: “We have been thinking about this, against the backdrop of the resumption of non-contact sports in the country but the federation is yet to get clarification from the Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports Development on the directive by the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19.”
“That pronouncement by the PTF mentioned non-contact outdoor sports, and table tennis is an indoor sport. So, we want to get clarification from the ministry, to know if what the PTF said about outdoor was in error. Otherwise, players and officials are ready to get back to court,” he said.
“But the halt in activities affected the year’s programme. We will now be activating the programmes we have for the year, although we will be taking into consideration ITTF’s plans before we schedule ours.
“For instance, this month of August is usually when we have the Nigeria Open which attracts so many foreign players to the country. But due to COVID-19, we were not able to prepare early.
On the return of competitions, Tikon said 2020 has a busy schedule both for the federation and the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).
