Four Athletes Join Cadet Tennis Team

The Nigeria Table Tennis
Federation has named four athletes into its cadet team.
The athletes are Ibrahim Umar, Michael Obayomi, Muibat Bello and Zainab Surmer.
The NTTF’s Secretary, Chinedu Ezealah-Ogundare, told newsmen that no fewer than 16 athletes had been discovered in the ongoing Toyin Okenla-Ojeaga U-17 Table Tennis Championships.
It will be recalled that the cadet team is made up of winners from last year’s International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) sponsored ‘’Nigeria Hopes Week Intensive Training Programme for grassroots talents.
The competition, which served-off on March 24 is to be concluded on March 29 at the Molade Thomas-Okoya Hall of the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere, Lagos.
“16 players have been discovered and their accurate ages were also gotten in the process.
“They will have to fight hard to make it into the cadet team because the team is for serious minded people.’’
Ezealah-Ogundare noted that the federation had mapped out plans to run clinics to engage the athletes during their long vacation.
“The federation would cater for both their feeding and accommodation to make everything easy for them.’’
She, however, appealed to parents to support their children to enable them achieve their true potential in sports.
“Let us all join hands together to help these young ones achieve their heart’s desires.
“It is only when their hearts are at peace that they can achieve anything, nothing can be achieved when the heart is in fear,” she said.
The winners in last year’s event are Abiodun Adekunle of Angus Memorial Senior Secondary School, Igbobi, who won the boys’ trophy, while Zainab Akande of King Ado, High School, Isale Eko, won the girls’ trophy.