Sports
West African T/ Tennis Tourney Kicks Off In Lagos
The second edition of the ITTF Africa Western Region Championship serves off at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos on Monday.
Hosts Nigeria will slug it out with Ghana, Ivory Coast, Benin Republic, Togo, and Liberia at the four-day championship with teams competing for honours in seven events.
Already, the stage is set with junior sensation Samuel Boboye and Azeez Solanke spearheading the Nigeria team for the championship, while national champion Fatimo Bello leads the women’s team at the tournament.
Men’s singles champion, Oba Oba Kizito, flew in from Paris in his bid to defend his title, while Bello will also be wading off contests from Ghanaians and others in her quest to hold on to her women’s singles title.
Secretary-General, ITTF Africa Western Region, Germain Karou, said all was set for the championship.
“We are happy that our region is getting back to action after the Covid-19 pandemic, which prevented the staging of the tournament in 2020. But as usual, Lagos being the host, a table tennis lovers will be treated to exciting matches from teams and players from the region.
It promises to be explosive as some of the players are ready to clinch the titles in the absence of the top players like Quadri Aruna in the region,” Karou, who is also the President, Ivory Coast Table Tennis Federation, said.
Chairman, Lagos State Sports Commission, Sola Aiyepeku, said Lagos was ready to host the tournament in compliance with Covid-19 protocols.
“We will do everything to show our visitors ‘This is Lagos’ by ensuring you enjoy your stay in Lagos and partake in an exciting hitch-free tournament. More importantly, creating a veritable platform for our players in Africa to demonstrate and improve their skills will go a long way to continue identifying, promoting and preparing them ahead for future competitions beyond the continent,” Aiyepeku said.
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.