Fashola Sponsors Four Nigerian Cadet Table Tennis Players To African Championship.

Nigeria Table Tennis Federation,NTTF, has commended Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola, for sponsoring four Nigerian cadet table tennis players to the 2013 International Table Tennis Federation, ITTF, African Junior Championship, AJC, holding in Nabeul, Tunisia.

The ITTF-Africa Junior Championships serves as qualification event for the World Junior Championships to be staged in Rabat, Morocco from Sunday 1st to Sunday, December 8, 2013. Its Secretary General, Segun Oguntade, said the gesture showed that Lagos State was a shining example for others to follow because it was the young athletes paraded at the 18th National Sports Festival tagged Eko 2012 that won five of the seven gold medals at stake in table tennis.

He also praised the Commissioner for Commissioner for Youth, Sports and Social Development, Wahid Oshodi, for ensuring that the team make it to Tunisia as he believed that the players would make the country proud.

 Oguntade, who explained that the tournament scheduled for next month would have an 18-man team led by the Chairman, Lagos State Table Tennis Association, LSTTA, Femi Sokoya, said the team would depart the country next Tuesday to take part in the ITTF Junior Circuit, which is preparatory to the ITTF-Africa Junior.

Meanwhile, all eyes will be on Egypt’s Aly Ghallab, who was impressive at the recent ITTF Global Junior Circuit Finals in Guatemala. He is one of the major contenders for honours at the ITTF-Africa Junior Championships.

 The tournament will be staged in the Tunisian city of Nabeul from Monday 1st to Saturday April 6, being immediately preceded by the Tunisian Junior and Cadet Open, an ITTF Junior Circuit event, which will be held from Thursday 28 to Sunday, March 31.

At the end of the championship on April 6, the leading three boys’ teams and the leading three girls’ teams will qualify for the World Junior Championships, thus with Morocco as the hosts as Africa will be prominently represented in Rabat with four teams in each category.