World table tennis ruling body, International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), has named Egyptian and South African officials for the forthcoming Africa Cup holding in Lagos from May 26 to 28 termed Lagos 2022 Africa.
Egypt’s Mohamed El-Dawlatly is the competition manager, while Africa’s most experienced lady referee, Genevieve Lentz of South Africa, will handle proceedings at the continental elite tournament.
El-Dawlatly was part of the technical team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan and also several international competitions across the globe.
He was competition manager of the Nigeria Open in 2018 and his experience will come to the fore in Lagos when the best players in Africa converge on Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre for the elite tournament, which serves as qualifiers for the WTT Cup Finals.
Like El-Dawlatly, Lentz was also part of the ITTF referee team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, as well as the last World University Games in Italy. So, she will be heading to Lagos as an experienced official.
According to the tournament’s prospectus of the Lagos 2022 Africa, each country is expected to nominate two players each in men’s and women’s events, while the host, Nigeria, will present four men and four women.
Egypt, as the men and women defending champions, will have three men and three women for the event.
The events shall be played in a round-robin format of five players in each group, with the top two players in each group advancing to the second stage of the tournament.
The allotment of the players in groups will hold according to the latest African ranking list of May 2022.
(The Guardian)
