Nigeria's sensational female ping ponger, Fatimo Bello, has shown her quality to
dominate the maiden Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) National Women
Singles Open Championship concluded at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim
Balogun Stadium.
THe feat, came seventy-two hours after emerging as
champion at the All African games trial.
She fought her way into the final
brushing aside the likes of national player, Cecilia Otu-Akpan as well as
returnee Ganiat Aruna to set up a final clash against former junior champion –
Tosim Oribamise.
Despite not having the chance to
compete in international tournaments like her opponent in the final –
Oribamise, Bello made nonsense of the experience of her opponent.
Oribamise who is considered to be
Nigeria’s most travelled and experienced player in recent times, was no match
to Bello who thrashed the Ekiti State-born Oribamise 4-0 (11 -7, 11-6, 11-8,
11-4) to cart home the N200,000 star prize money.
An excited Bello said she is
determined to make the Nigeria team to the 2019 All Africa Games in Morocco.
"I'm very happy and excited
about the victory. This is going to help me a lot because I won't stop training
and continue to work hard. Training is the key to my success and hopeful I will
continue to win. I actually started training two months ago for the trials and
this Women Singles championship and I was expecting to win, so it is not
something surprising.
As the first winner of this tournament which means I'm
one of the best players in Nigeria, I will like to play abroad and do all my
possible best if I get the opportunity. I'm looking forward to play for the
National team and excel with the team,” she said.
The tournament sponsored by the NTTF
President, Engineer Ishaku Tikon was to rate female players and select team for
major championships and the NTTF boss admitted that the objectives of the
tournament was achieved.
“We have gotten the result of why we
staged the competition. A new queen has emerged and the line-up according to
their ranking have also been established, we are good to go and we are prepared
to conquer Africa and we are on our way to dominate table tennis in the region,”
Tikon said.
For the former President of NTTF, Wahid Oshodi, the performance of the players was encouraging and with constant training and regular competitions, the players would be ready to compete with the best.
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