Weikert is the incumbent ITTF President and he inherited the position in 2014. Today’s Presidential election is the first he contested against a challenger
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Already, 64 top players in the world, including Olympic and World Champion, China’s Ma Long, have been exempted from competing in the preliminary round of the championships, while they are expected to begin their campaigns in the main draw (first round) of the tournament
In the seeding list released by ITTF Africa, Egypt’s duo of Youssef Abdel-Aziz and Marwa Alhodaby are top seeds in the boys and girls event respectively
The players have been in closed camp organised by the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation for over a week at the National Stadium, Lagos
The players, who are expected to depart for Tunisia this weekend for the championship, said their dream of making it to the top in Africa may be threatened if they fail to be part of the championship, which serves as qualifiers for the World Junior Championship and 2018 YOG in Argentina
The association’s Chairman, Architect Femi Sokoya, said athletes are ready to join the nation’s professional players in Europe
The qualification of the participating teams was based on their attendance of continental tournament held in Agadir, Morocco last year
The boys’ team will be led by national junior champion, Amadi Omeh, as well as Azeez Solanke, Tobi Falana and Rilwan Akanbi, while the girls’ team will be spearheaded by national junior sensation, Tosin Esther Oribamise
Also, winner of the ITTF Africa Senior championships, Egypt’s Omar Assar, achieved the biggest feat of his career by climbing from 43 to 37 in the world
Onaolapo, who was part of Nigeria’s team to the last ITTF Africa Senior Championships, would not want to remember the defeats he suffered in the hand of Egypt’s El-Sayed Lashin twice in Cairo, while Omotayo would not want the memory of his poor performance in 2014 to haunt him during the 2015 Lagos Open
The tournament, according to Africa Table Tennis Federation, serves as qualifiers for this year’s World Championship scheduled for April in China
In the last two months, Quadri had defeated some of the world’s highly rated players like Egypt’s duo of Oma Assar and El-Sayed Lashin, as well as Singapore’s Jian Zhan