Forget Olympic Team Medals, Oshodi Tells Nigerians

Lagos State Commissioner For Sports and board member of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation, NTTF, Enitan Oshodi, has said that Nigerians should not expect any medal in the team events of table tennis at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The NTTF boss said that Nigerian players stand to face stronger opposition from players from other countries in the team events of the sport at the Olympics.

“Nigeria should forget the hope of winning any medals in the team events at the London 2012 Olympics. Players from countries like China and Germany have better chances of winning medals at the team events than our players,” said Oshodi.

However, Oshodi said that the players may do the country proud in the singles’ events at the games, adding that Nigerian representatives are good individually.

“Nigerian players will give a good account of themselves in the singles’ events at the Olympics. The country has brighter chances of winning medals in the singles’ event because the players are very good in singles,” he said.

Nigerian ping-pongers are currently in Germany, featuring at the World Table Tennis Championship, which also serves as African qualifiers for the team events of the London 2012 Olympics.

Commenting on the ongoing championship in Germany, the sports administrator said that Team Nigeria, led by Segun Toriola, are not doing badly.

The tourney, which stroked off on Saturday, 24 March, will be concluded on 1 April.

—Bimbo Ajayi