Oluranti Lajide, the Table Tennis Chief Referee at the 18th National Sports Festival which began on Tuesday in Lagos has warned against gambling at the venue of the competition.
Lajide handed down the warning on Tuesday at a meeting with the various states’ team leaders for the festival held at the Knock-Up Hall of the National Stadium, Lagos.
“Any table tennis players or official caught gambling within the arena of the table tennis competition would be disqualified.
“Gambling in any form within the games arena has been banned and any player or official caught would be handed over to the security agencies for prosecution.
“Gambling is not synonymous with table tennis and should not be allowed to tarnish the good image of the sport,” he said.
The Chief Referee also advised team leaders to strictly adhere to the rules and regulations governing the game.
According to him, the matches will be run according to the rules and regulations of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation and the International Table Tennis Federation.
“The sport’s code of conduct is in affiliation with the ITTF requirements,” he added.
Lajide also told the team leaders to warn their players against gumming their table tennis bats with rubber surfaces within the competition arena.
“One of ITTF’s latest rules and regulations is against players gumming their bats surface with a rubber surface within the competition arena. Any player caught doing so would be disqualified,” he said.
According to him, a protest fee of N50, 000 would be made before a complaint is attended to, saying the surcharge was to curtail the number of protests in the event.
Lajide added that a total of 36 events would hold in the game at the festival, made up of seven for the able-bodied category, 24 for para-players and five for the deaf players.
He said that the deaf category was being included for the first time at the Lagos Games.