Sports
Table Tennis: Association Begins Preparations For 2018
Secretary of the Rivers State Table Tennis Association, Tekenah Lulu-Poku has said that his team has commenced preparations for the 2018 calendar year, to compete favourably with their counterparts across the federation.
Lulu-Poku, disclosed this at the weekend during an interview with Tidesports in Port Harcourt.
According to him, the team which hardly participated in competitions would begin preparation for next year, saying that, this would help the athletes to stay physically fit and adapt to new rules and techniques on the sport.
“So far, so good, we have only attended and taken part in the National Under -17 Youth Games which held in Ilorin, Kwara State. We need to prepare ourselves for the outlined programmes ahead of us”, Lulu-Poku said.
He noted that the Rivers State Sports Festival scheduled to hold in 2018 was also one of the competitions on their programme, saying that, they (athletes) and the body as a whole were working hard to ensure that they achieved a better result, when the chips were finally down. The athletes are training intensively to progress on their preparations in order to fortify themselves ahead of future hurdles that are associated with the game.
Iwobi spoke to Tidesports source ahead of Nigeria’s crunch playoff semi-final against Gabon on Thursday, November 13, in Rabat, Morocco.
The 28-year-old was reacting to Nigeria’s shaky World Cup qualifying campaign that saw the Eagles finish second in Group C behind South Africa’s Bafana Bafana.
“We’ve managed to rescue ourselves from the dead,” Iwobi told Tidesports source.
We know we have the players and the abilities to compete against any other country in the world.”
The Fulham star pointed to Nigeria’s star power, highlighting African Footballer of the Year winners Ademola Lookman and Victor Osimhen as proof of the squad’s quality.
“We have last year’s African best player (Ademola Lookman), the year before that (Victor Osimhen),” he said.
“It’ll be a shame if we don’t make it, but we have a lot of confidence. We just have to prove it to ourselves.”
Nigeria’s path to the United States, Canada and Mexico has been turbulent, with two coaches departing during the early stages of qualifying before Éric Chelle steadied the ship to steer the Super Eagles into November’s CAF playoffs.
Four nations from the continent – Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo and Gabon – will vie for a solitary spot to compete in next March’s inter-confederation playoffs, with a view to joining the already nine qualified African nations at the Finals.
It would mark Iwobi’s second appearance at the World Cup Finals and the Super Eagles’ first since the 2018 edition of the competition.
Back then, Iwobi featured in all three games as Nigeria was knocked out in the group stage.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Publisher of the Atlantic Bell Online medium, Mr. Celestine Ogolo has advised sports writers in Nigeria to diversify in sports writing and not to concentrate on football reporting alone.
The Deputy National President of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Mr. Bonny Nyong has expressed commitment to support sports development and move SWAN forward.
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