Table Tennis: Nigeria’s Oshodi Cleared To Battle 16 Others For ITTF VP Posts

World’s table tennis ruling body, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), has confirmed Nigeria’s Wahid Enitan Oshodi as one of the candidates for Executive Vice Presidents positions in the November 24 elections taking place in the United States (U.S).

Oshodi, a former Lagos State Commissioner for Youth and Sports as well as the erstwhile President of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), was in June elected as the Deputy President of the African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF). He has received massive support from Africa for the upcoming elections in the U.S. based on his exemplary and leadership role in the sport and outside it on the continent. 

In a statement issued by the ITTF, the world body said 17 candidates would contest the eight slots available for the VP positions.

The statement disclosed: “Following a vetting process by the ITTF Nominations Committee, the nominations for the ITTF Executive Committee have been announced to the ITTF Members.

“For the ITTF Executive Vice Presidents (8 positions), they are Nestor TENCA (Argentina), Graham SYMONS (Australia), Alaor AZEVEDO (Brazil), LIU Guoliang (China), Alaa MESHREF (Egypt), Michel GADAL (France), Tony YUE (Hong Kong), Roland NATRAN (Hungary), Behnam HABIBZADEHMOMEN (Iran), Masahiro MAEHARA (Japan), Teddy MATTHEWS (LCA), Wahid OSHODI (Nigeria), Paul KYLE (New Zeland), Khalil AL-MOHANNADI (Qatar), Igor LEVITIN (Russia), Dawoud ALHAJRI (United Arab Emirates) and Virginia SUNG (United States).

Also, Sweden’s Petra Sörling is poised to become the ITTF President after being confirmed as the sole candidate for the position at the organisation’s Annual General Assembly (AGM).

ITTF Members will vote to elect the nine ITTF Executive Committee members with the President at the ITTF Annual General Meeting on 24 November 2021 in Houston.. The Committee will serve a four-year mandate. The nine elected members will join the ITTF Athletes Commission Chair, Zoran PRIMORAC (CRO) and IOC Member RYU Seungmin (KOR) to form the complete ITTF Executive Committee.

Thirty-five nominations were received for the ITTF Board of Directors (BOD) positions, with 32 expected to be confirmed at the AGM.  Nigeria’s Olabanji Oladapo, who is the Secretary General of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), is expected to vie with others for the BOD posts.