Nigeria, Egypt For 2019 ITTF Team World Cup
FeaturedSports October 23, 2019 Dianabasi Effiong
African champions – Nigeria and Egypt – will represent continent at the 2019 ITTF Team World Cup holding at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.
The five-day meet, which serves off on November 6 to 10, is a table tennis test event for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games to be hosted by Japan.
Nigeria secured their place at the tournament following their triumph at the 2018 African Championships held in Mauritius and the West African side will be returning to the tournament after their last appearance in 2010.
In 2013 edition held in China, Egypt’s men team led by Omar Assar stunned the world to claim bronze medal ahead of Germany in the third place tie.
Like Nigeria, Egypt is the African women champion and they have named Dina Meshref; Reem El-Eraky; Yousra Helmy; Marwa Alhodaby; and Farah Abdel-Aziz.
The tournament will feature teams of the standard of Olympic Games, as a dress rehearsal for the showpiece event in 2020. With such high stakes, there is no thread of favourites in table tennis which can afford to exclude the behemoth that is Team China.
The European contingent is well represented at the Word Cup, and while Team Germany will only have their men’s team as qualified contestants, they are sure to be more than a handful for everyone.
Providing an elite contingent across both events, the Japanese teams will have a strong list of names competing at home with an extra bit of motivation to give their fans a preview of things to come next year.