For a man who works planted a chair, John Peters has sure been a lot of places. "I must admit that table tennis has taken me around the whole world," confided the veteran umpire from Nigeria. "Even where I could not afford to go, table tennis has opened doors for me to go." Peters has been officiating international matches since 1973. Now 73 himself, he is just getting warmed up. He began to play as a schoolboy in 1958. "I quickly fell in love with the sport," recalls Peters. "Soon, I started beating everybody in my class. Unfortunately, we never had any organized tournament." After receiving a degree in statistics from the University of Ibadan, Peters discovered a positive correlation between his proximity to table tennis and his incidence of elation. Trained as an umpire by Dr. Adegboyega Efunkoya, President of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation, Peters first officiated the African Games in 1973. This August in Rabat, he presided over the quadrennial event for the seventh time. There, he was honored by African Table Tennis Federation President Khaled El-Salhy for his decades of service. In a career that has taken him all across Africa, to Glasgow and Delhi for the Commonwealth Games, and even to Rio for the 2016 Olympics, Peters has never lost his enthusiasm for the game-- quite to the contrary. “I don’t know whether I can be separated from table tennis," he rhapsodized. "It is in my blood and my passion. Fortunately, there is no retirement age in umpiring. That is why I will continue to officiate as long as I am alive." Armed with a keen eye and his trusty chair, John Peters can go anywhere.

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