Ahead World Team Table Tennis Tourney: Omotosho Charges Team Nigeria

The vice president of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation, NTTF, Alhaji Abdulwahab Omotosho has charged Nigerian team players that will represent the country at the World Team Tennis Championship in Dortmund,Germany, to do well at the tourney in order to secure the sole ticket available for Africa for table tennis event at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The World Team Table Tennis Championships,WTTC, starts in Dortmund, Germany from 23 March to 3 April and will serve as African qualifiers for the 2012 Olympic games in London.

While speaking on the chances of Nigerian girls securing the only ticket available for Africa at the championship, Omotosho said he can only enjoin the ping pongers that will be representing the country in Germany to put in their best for the country.

He said: “It is our ambition to secure the team ticket to represent Africa at the Games in London. For this reason, I will like to charge our players to make it a priority when they get there to win the ticket.

The federation is doing its best to ensure the players are in their top form from now till the end of the championship.”

Omotosho, who identified lack of regular tournaments as one of the greatest problems militating against the development of the game in the country, appealed to corporate organisations to sponsor more tennis tournaments as a way of empowering the youth in the country.

“We still need more training camp and competitions to put our players in good shape.But as you are aware that lack of regular sponsorship and competitions is the bane of this federation,” he said.

Omotosho, however, refuted rumour making the rounds that Nigeria table tennis is suffering and will soon be relegated to the background by Egypt and South Africa.

“Table tennis in the country is not suffering. We are determined to confirm our superiority over all other nations in Africa by securing the sole ticket in Germany. We will prove to them that we are still the top playing nation when it comes to table tennis on the continent of Africa,” he said.

Nigerian number one male table tennis player, Segun Toriola, as we are informed through a source in the tennis federation, will be leading the team to Germany.

—Bamidele Olowosagba