Sports
S’East Open Table Tennis Championship Ends, Today
The 2022 South East inuagural Open Table Tennis Championship served off in Enugu yesterday, the second day, after the screening of players on Wednesday.
The three-day table tennis championship which features veterans, single and cadet categories will end today. Tidesports source reports that Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo and some tennis clubs within the region are competing at the event inside the Indoor Sports Hall of Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu.
The championship is organised by the Enugu Table Tennis Club (ETTC) in collaboration with the Enugu State Table Tennis Association (ETTA) and Enugu State Ministry of Youth and Sports.
The Chairman, Enugu Table Tennis Club, Dr Solomon Orji, stated that it was a dream come true for him and that the competition had really expanded beyond his imaginations.
Orji expressed gratitude to their several partners for their immense support and backings to ensure a successful event.
Ifeanyi Ugwuodo, Enugu State Table Tennis coach, threw more light on the prizes for each category.
He said the winner for cadet, those under 13 years, would go home with cash prize of N70,000, second would receive N50,000 while third would pocket 30,000.
The Men’s singles is N200,000; second, N120,000 and third position will recieve N80,000.
In Junior male and female, the first position would be rewarded with N70,000, second with N50,000 and third position with N30,000, while the grand prize for Veterans had yet to be determined by the organisers.
According to Ugwuodo, 104 players are participating with 31 players featuring in the Men’s single, Nine Junior girls, 22 junior boys, 16 veterans and 26 cadets.
Representative of the Nigeria Table Table Federation (NTTF), Coach Niyi Oladipupo, said he believed that the championship would improve in subsequent editions.
He said that in spite of the hitches and delays during the screening exercise the event would serve its purpose of discovery and grooming of talents from the zone.
Oladipupo applauded the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for throwing its weight behind the event.
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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