COVID-19: NTTF considers organising 2020 Nigeria Open before end of year

The Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) is considering organising before the end of the year the 2020 Nigeria Open Table Tennis Tournament, which was held back due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Ishaku Tikon, the President of Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.

“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.

On the return of competitions, Tikon said 2020 has a busy schedule both for the federation and the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).

“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.

“So, we are looking at the possibility of securing a window (from ITTF) to organise the event.

“But we will still have  to reconcile whatever plans we have with that of the international body,” he said.

The NTTF president also said the federation would begin the decontamination of its venues in Lagos and also reach out to the states to do the same thing.

“This will be done in adherence to the COVID-19 safety measures, and it will be before competitions and training will commence,’’ he said.