The Lagos state Table Tennis Association has revealed plans to take some of its top table tennis players on a foreign tour to gain international exposure.
Chairman of LSTTA, Architect Femi Sokoya, said a lot of athletes in the state were ready to join the nation’s professionals playing in the top table tennis leagues in Europe.
Sokoya stated that the LSTTA board was discussing with individuals and corporate organisations to sponsor the team’s training tour abroad.
He stressed that the training tour of China embarked by the team helped the state table tennis team to top the medals table in table tennis at the Eko 2012 National Sports Festival.
Sokoya who was delighted with the enthusiasm shown by players in the one-day trials, said the association would organise bigger and better competitions to encourage the athletes to improve their game.
At present, none of the state players is on the international table tennis federation, ITTF rankings, and Sokoya expressed optimism that things will change before the next quarterly tournament.
Meanwhile, former champion of Asoju Oba Table Tennis Championship, Adeyinka Ahmed, has appealed to LSTTA board to create an enabling environment for him and other top ping-pongers to join Nigerian professionals in Europe.
Ahmed, who said he had what it takes to play in Europe having won many domestic laurels, appealed to the nation’s top ping-pongers in Europe to pave the way for them to join the league of African professional ping-pongers.
On the ongoing trials, Ahmed said it would enable the players to be in good shape ahead of national and international competitions, stressing that Lagos state is blessed with many quality players.
Apart from using the trials to keep the players in top shape, the just-ended one-day event at the Mobolaji Johnson Sports Centre of the Lagos State Sports Commission, was organised by the association to rank the players based on their performances.
The quarterly trials, the first competition of its kind to be organised by the association featured 60 male and 40 female players.
Discussion about this post