Oribamishe, Hassan lead Team Nigeria to ITTF WJC in Egypt

National junior champion, Tosin Oribamishe and Lagos Open revelation, Nurudeen Hassan will lead Team Nigeria to next month’s International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Junior Circuit (WJC) holding in Egypt.

Oribamishe, who won the Aso tournament recently in Abuja, will be joined by southpaw, Halimot Ayinla, Muibat Bello and two others in the girls’ event.

Hassan, whose performance at the 2015 Lagos Open is still a point of reference will be tasting his first international tournament outside the shores of Nigeria when he spearheads the boys’ team which includes, African Youth Games champion, Olasunkanmi Oginni as well as teenage sensation, Abayomi Animashaun.

Nigeria junior players will be returning to the world stage after missing the Mauritius Open last April and their presence in Egypt will surely give teams like Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria a tough challenge at the competition holding from June 8 to 12.

However, the President, African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF), Khaled El-Salhy is excited about the presence of Nigeria in Egypt. He was particularly thrilled by the new ultra modern hall that will host the five-day championship.

HASSAN Nurudeen of Nigeria

“Playing in a brand new venue “6 October” in Giza – Egypt quite closer to the Pyramids which will add some special taste to the event, and I am expecting bigger number of entries,” he said.

El-Salhy admits that this event would serve as a platform to unearth new stars for the continent.

“This kind of ITTF sanctioned event for sure is the main factory to build up our African players and to present them to the World scene. I have to thank the African countries hosting such events this year (Nigeria WT, Tunisia JC, Mauritius JC & now Egypt JC) while in the previous years we had also Morocco WT & Algeria JC,” he added.

“Till now, I know that Nigeria and the host – Egypt already sent entries, I am expecting more entries from the northern parts (Libya, Tunisia & Algeria) plus possible entries from Congo Brazzaville & Angola. Also, as I said Egypt and Nigeria could get some good exposure, and I am looking out for Youssef Abdel-Aziz (EGY) in Cadet Boys & Tosin Oribamishe (NGR) in Cadet Girls,” he said.

Egypt’s Dominance Of Nigeria In Table Tennis Is Over, Says Toriola

For the past five years, Egypt overthrew Nigeria’s dominance of table tennis in Africa and this continued unabated until what befell the North Africans recently at the maiden African Top 16 Cup when Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri defeated two Egyptians on his way to clinching the title.

Segun Toriola

This is what as prompted Segun Toriola’s submission recently when he concluded that the era of Egypt ruling the game is over.

“We have improved a lot now especially with young players like Aruna Quadri as everybody witnessed what happened at the Lagos World Tour and the African Top 16 Cup. At present, some of the Egyptian players are afraid of Nigerian players.

The Egyptians ‎used to think that they could easily defeat Nigerian players but now they have doubts because our performance at the Lagos World Tour has convinced them.

“I believe in the next four to five years, we will see tremendous improvements in Nigerian table tennis and I am hopeful that young players like Tosin Oribamishe will be an Africa champion in the next three or four years,” he stated.

The former African champion who spearheaded a two-week training exercise for junior players said he would be willing to support the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) in its quest to revive the fortunes of the game.

“For me it’s very important to give something back to the young ones and everybody knows that I have been playing with the national team for many years. As I am planning to quit next year, it is very important to let the young ones have a deeper understanding of the game especially the basics.

Having gained a lot of knowledge even as a junior player and with more than 15 years experience, I think it is also very important for me to impart on the younger players,” he said.

For the President, NTTF, Wahid Oshodi, having players like Toriola is a plus to the country.

His words: “What the federation is trying to do is to ensure that we get our players constantly engaged and we are lucky to have Toriola, who is willing to work with the national coaches. I think the most important thing now is coming off the back of a successful 2014 Commonwealth Games especially in the men’s team. Now we know that we need some new players and some of the players hopefully in the next four years will be at the next Commonwealth games, I’m quite sure that one or two of them will be there so we need to work harder to build on the successes we have had and I believe a new batch of stars will be unearthed soon.”

Oshodi also appealed to sponsors to identify with the game:
“We must thank our sponsors, the people who have backed us, but organise more tournaments requires more money and that is the major constraint we are facing.

But we are looking to the National Sports Commission (NSC) now more than ever. We need their backing and support.

We told them we would deliver at the Commonwealth Games and we delivered a bronze, which we haven’t done in a long time. We are very proud of that bronze medal considering the fact that we have two young players in the team – Ojo Onaolapo and Aruna Quadri.

So it tells you that the work we are doing is paying off but now we need money and that means looking toward NSC and also our sponsors have been very helpful. They tried quite hard but now we need the Federal Government to back table tennis in Nigeria,” he added.

NTTF Elite Junior & Cadet Training Camp Excites Players

As the maiden Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF)-organised elite junior and cadet training camp enters final week, players taking part in the exercise are still in cloud nine over the quality of coaching coupled with the superb organization of the 14-day training camp.

The two weeks camping exercise was initiated by one of Africa’s most decorated table tennis players, Segun Toriola assisted by national coach, Nosiru Bello and Friday Aba.

The 18 players taking part are made up of nine boys and nine girls and they were drawn from Lagos, Ogun, Kogi, Kwara, Ondo, Ekiti and Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja and they are between the ages of seven and 16.

For the trio of Tosin Oribamishe, Abayomi Animashaun and Afeez Solanke, the exercise has imparted so much on them as they had acquired new skills as well as correct some of their lapses in the game.

sther Oribamishe is one of the players taking par in the ongoing NTTF elite junior and cadet training camp holding in Lagos1

Oribamishe, one of the most travelled junior players and the current national junior champion, believes that the “elite junior and cadet training camp” should be staged regularly.

“we have never had this kind of camping before and I want to appeal to the federation not to make it a one-off event especially with the presence of Toriola, who has played to the highest level in the world. His presence alone served as a motivation to us because we have seen some of things he has been able to achieve with the game and we are also hoping that we can follow in his footstep.

this camp has revealed my mistakes and I have been able to correct it while I also pick up new skills. So this exercise should be sustained especially for the young players,” Oribamishe said.

For 12 year-old Animashaun, the camping has been an eye opener especially with the presence of his role model, Toriola, whom he said has impacted so much in him during the exercise.

His words: “In the camp, I leant not to be on the defensive side when playing and that I must be on the offensive. Also, my top-spin as well as my looping is now perfect because they are now staying on table.

Also, I have been able to adjust my movement on the table which I found very difficult to correct before. All these are things I have been able to do within the first week of the camping. As we enter the final week, I am hoping that I will pick up new things.”

Solanke, winner of the maiden DAWN Games, admits that being part of the exercise has been worthwhile.

“I am so happy that I made it to the camp and for me this is an opportunity for me to perfect my skills especially as I am looking forward to making it to the national junior team.

I can say that Toriola has really impacted so much in us while the organisation of the camping has been so impressive since last week. We are also hopeful that this week will be more interesting than last week,” the southpaw player said.

According to the President, NTTF, Wahid Oshodi, the players were selected based on their performance in competitions sanctioned by the federation and with the aim of teaching them the basics of the game.

For the initiator of the camp, Toriola, the country still blessed with enormous talents in the game, while efforts should be geared towards nurturing these skills to stardom.

“It is very important for former players that had represented this country to see how they can help to improve the game through this kind of exercise which I believe if staged regularly will surely help the young players to improve and rub shoulders with the world’s best.

Most of the players are just playing without understanding the basics especially in pushing long balls and also the need for them to be on the attack because nobody plays defensive game these days.

With what I have seen so far, I think there are bright prospects in the game.

Also our former players should change their mind that until they become national team coaches before they can contribute their own quota towards the development of the game.

The Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth medalist said.