Table Tennis: Egypt’s dominance over Nigeria over – Toriola

Since Egypt overthrew Nigeria as Africa’s number one country in table tennis five years ago they have enjoyed some high degree of success on the continent and globally but that was halted at the maiden African Top 16 Cup when Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri defeated two Egyptians on his way to clinching the title.

Based on this new found rhythm Segun Toriola believes that the era of Egypt ruling the game is over. “We have improved a lot now especially with young player like Aruna Quadri as everybody witnessed what happened at the Lagos World Tour and the African Top 16 Cup. Now some Egyptian players are afraid of Nigerian players. Before, the ‎used to think that they can easily defeat Nigerian players, but now they have doubts because our performance at the Lagos World Tour has convinced them.

“I believe in the next four to five years, we will see tremendous improvement in Nigeria table tennis and I am hopeful that young players like Tosin Oribamishe will be Africa champions in the next three or four years,” he said.

The former African champion who spearheaded a two-week training exercise for junior players in the country recently said he will be willing to support the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) in its quest to turn around the fortune of the game.

“For me it’s very important to give something back to the young ones and everybody knows that I have been playing with the national team for many years. I am planning to quit next year and it is very important to let the young ones have more understanding of the game especially the basic things that are very important. Having gained a lot of knowledge even as a junior player and with more than 15 years experience, I think it is also very important for me to impart on the younger players,” he said.

President of the NTTF, Wahid Enitan Oshodi said that it is a plus for Nigeria to have player like Toriola. “What the federation is trying to do is to ensure we get our players constantly engaged and we are lucky to have Toriola, who is willing to work with the national coaches. I think the most important thing now is coming off the back of a successful 2014 Commonwealth Games especially in the men’s team. Now we know that we need some new players and some of the players, hopefully in the next four years, will be at the Commonwealth Games, I’m quite sure that one or two of them will be there so we need to work harder to build on the successes we have had.”

To support the federation, Oshodi appealed to sponsors to identify with the game. “We must thank our sponsors, the people who backed us and to do more tournaments means more money and that is a major constraints we are having but we are looking to the National Sports Commission (NSC) now more than ever.

“We need the NSC’s backing and support. We told them we will deliver at the Commonwealth Games and we delivered a bronze medal, which we haven’t done in a long time. We are very proud of that bronze medal considering the fact that we have two young players in the team – Ojo Onaolapo and Aruna Quadri. So it tells you that the work we are doing is yielding positive results, but now we need money. They tried quite hard but now we need the Federal Government to back table tennis in Nigeria,” Oshodi said.