Players and officials of participating teams at this year’s ITTF Africa Cup were welcomed to Rwanda on Sunday with a full display of the Rwandan cultural.
The ITTF Africa Cup is annual competition featuring the best table tennis players on the continent and it will also serve as qualifying event for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The opening ceremony took place at the BK Arena in Kigali with the Indinze Cultural Troupe entertaining audience with the Imihamirizo and Umushayayo tradition dance.
The 15 countries including hosts Rwanda and Nigeria that will participate in the three-day tournament are Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritius, Djibouti, Cameroon, Madagascar, Uganda, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Congo and Ethiopia.
Dignitaries present at the opening ceremony in Kigali on Sunday night were General-Secretary of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), Raul Calin; President of African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF), Khaled El-Salhy; President of Rwanda Table Tennis Federation (RTTF), John Birungi and; Permanent Secretary of the Rwanda Ministry of Sports, Zephanie Niyonkuru.
Meanwhile, Nigeria head coach Segun Toriola – a former Commonwealth Games gold medallists and seven-time Olympian – is confident of guiding his country to better their achievement at the African Games took place in Ghana earlier this year.
Africa’s best-ranked table tennis players Omar Assar of Egypt and Quadri Aruna of Nigeria are expected to compete at the ITTF Africa Cup after their unsuccessful outing at the WTT Saudi Smash event.
