African no 1 Table Tennis player, Quadri Aruna has raised concerns over the clash in the schedule of the 2023 African Games and the 2024 Singapore Smash Event.
The 13th African Games is scheduled for 8th to 23rd March 2024 in Ghana while the Singapore Smash Event is billed for 7th to 17th March 2024.
Aruna appealed to the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) and World Table Tennis (WTT) to prevail on the African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF) in order to play the Table Tennis event at the African Games between 15th to 23rd March.
The Commonwealth Silver medallist said, “The African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF) has made the move to play during Singapore smash events and this means that several African players that qualified for Singapore smash won’t be able to participate.
“African players are begging the ITTF and WTT to look into this issue and help convince the ATTF to appeal to the organisers of the African Games to move the Table Tennis event from the planned date to 15th to 23rd March.
“The Singapore Smash Event is as big as the World Championships and everyone is always excited to participate. The players do not want to get injured with the tight schedule and miss Singapore events at the same time.
“We want to play at the Singapore Smash Event first before heading to the African Games”.
“It will definitely look so bad for our sports if no player from Africa participates in this year’s Singapore smash”.
