Sports Ministry Reinstates Oshonaike For Commonwealth Games

Former African Champion Olufunke Oshonaike has been instated into the table tennis team heading to the 2022 Commonwealth Games amid  pressure from all quarters after her initial omission due to undisciplined conduct at the last Tokyo 2020 Olympics,
Oshonaike who is Nigeria’s most decorated female table tennis player and the only female seven-time table tennis Olympian in the world, was omitted from the list of the four-man female team submitted by the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) to the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development.
According to a reliable source, the decision to omit her from the Commonwealth team was based on Oshonaike’s role in the face-off between the ministry officials and athletes at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
“When NTTF submitted the list of players for the Commonwealth Games, Oshonaike was part of the team because she was the second best Nigerian player at the 2022 Africa Cup in Lagos,” a reliable source told Tidesports.
“But on getting to the ministry, some top officials decided to expunge her name, blaming it on her attitude especially during the Tokyo Olympic Games.
“But there have been several calls to the Minister of Youth and Sports Development Sunday Dare to restore her name back into the list because she deserved to be in the team.
“This was going on for weeks now but over the weekend, the pressure paid off and her name has now been included in the list of the team heading to Birmingham later this week,” he added.