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 is made 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 the 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.
