Enitan Oshodi has been elected Executive Vice President of the International Table Tennis Federation.
Oshodi was elected at the ITTF Annual General Meeting held in Houston, Texas, USA on Wednesday, November 24, 2021.
The former Nigeria Table Tennis Federation president polled 136 votes, which was 85.29 percent of the total votes cast to defeat 13 other candidates who vied for the seat.
Enitan Oshodi is the second Nigerian to be elected to the world body after Segun George, who served as an Executive Vice President from 1999 to 2003. He will serve along seven other Executive Vice Presidents elected at the AGM.
Sweden’s Petra Sorling became the first woman to be elected as President of ITTF. She clinched the office of the 95-year-old international federation unopposed having been nominated by the Swedish Table Tennis Association and accepted by all the 226 member associations across the world. She is also the first reigning world champion to assume the role, having won the mixed doubles title at the 1991 World Championships in Chiba, Japan.
Egypt’s Alaa Meshref was reelected into the Executive Committee of ITTF.
It is the first time Africa will have two representatives in the EC. Other elected Vice Presidents are Graham Symons (AUS), Alaor Azevedo (BRA), LIU Guoliang (CHN), Roland Natran (HUN), Masahiro Maehara (JPN) and Khalil Al-Mohannadi (QAT).
The new president of the ITTF and the eight elected Vice Presidents will join the ITTF Athletes Commission Chair Zoran Primorac of Croatia and IOC Member Ryu Seungmin of Korea Republic to form the complete ITTF Executive Committee.
Earlier this year, Enitan Oshodi was elected as the Deputy President of African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF). He is an engineer and a lawyer.
Oshodi has been involved in table tennis for over three decades as a player, coach, administrator and sponsor. He has been instrumental in promoting and developing the sport in Nigeria and Africa, especially among young talents. He has also supported several initiatives and projects of the ITTF and ATTF, such as the World Table Tennis Championships Finals in Houston, the World Cadet Challenge in Egypt, and the African Olympic Qualification Tournament in Tunisia.
Oshodi expressed his gratitude and excitement after his election. He said: “I am humbled by this great honour and privilege to serve as an Executive Vice President of ITTF. I thank all my friends and colleagues from the table tennis family for their trust and support. I look forward to working with our new president Petra Sorling and all the other members of the Executive Committee to take our sport to greater heights.”
