The 2021 Top 16 Invitational Table Tennis (Men and Women) Challenge has been scheduled to commence on Friday June 12, 2021, at the Chief Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall, Teslim Balogun Stadium Surulere, Lagos.
The competition, which will hold among the strictly invited players only, is being sponsored by Renewed Hope, Lagos, and is being organized by Lagos State Table Tennis Association in conjunction with Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF).
In picking the players, priorities were given to the top 16 players, based on their performances in the 2020 National Sports Festival (Edo 2020), 2021 ASO National Championships, Abuja and 2021 NTTF National Championships.
In the first stage of the purely Singles competition, the players will be pooled into four groups with a round robin involving all the players in each group. All matches will be best of five (5) games. Two players shall qualify from each group to the second stage.
The second stage shall involve the eight qualifiers from the first stage who will be pooled into two groups in round robin matches with two qualifiers from each group. Matches shall still be best of 5 games.
In the 3rd stage, the winner of group one will play against the loser in group two, while the winner in group two shall play against the loser in group one in the Semi Finals. Matches in the Semi and Final will be best of seven games.
The invited players for the Men’s category are Solanke Azeez (TTC/Rivers), Omeh Amadi (Ondo), Mati Taiwo (Ondo), Fayele David (Lagos), Akanbi Rilwan, Oloruntade Adeola (Ondo), Augustine Emmanuel (Lagos), Okanlawon Usman (Oyo), Oladiran Joshua (Ondo), Adeyinka Hameed (Lagos), Fagbamila Akinwale (Ondo), Boboye Samuel (Bayelsa), Balogun Rasheed (G20 TTC/Rivers), Bello Ahmed (G20 TTC/Rivers), Qudus Oladejo Canaan (TTC/Ogun) and Oladele Kehinde (NPF/Oyo).
Fatimo Bello of G20 TTC/Delta tops the list of the 16 female players, who include Kwara’s trio of Asaju Bisola Ajarat, Jimoh Rofiat and Falana Iyanuoluwa.
Others are Odusanya Bose of Lagos, Fashola Aminat of NSCDC/Delta, Ekpeyong Vivian of Canaan TTC/Cross River, Oribamise Tosin Esther and, Ebong Ofonime of Canaan TTC/Cross River, Ajibike Moji of NSCDC/Ogun, Ayinla Alimat of G20 TTC/Rivers, Yaya Sidikat of NSCDC/Bayelsa, Adebayo Iyabo and Akinyinka Kehinde of Ondo, Jimoh Toyin of Ogun and Udoaka Idonrenyin of Canaan TTC/Cross River.
