The
quest for Africa to play in the championship division in 2018 started
on a bright note when Nigeria and Egypt recorded victories in their
first round matches at the ongoing ITTF World Team Championship in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia.
It
was Nigeria who paved the way for Egypt when earlier in the day, they
rattled Turkey with an emphatic 3-0 win with veteran Segun Toriola
joining forces with Quadri Aruna and Bode Abiodun.
Later
in the day, Egypt showed their class against Mexico when Omar Assar,
Mohammed El-Beiali and El-Sayed Lashin whitewashed their Mexican
counterparts with a 3-0 bashing.
The
Egyptian ladies made it a double header for the North African as they
also pummelled Switzerland 3-0 to put their ambition of gaining
promotion to the elite division on track.
Speaking
after the victory against Turkey, Bode Abiodun (NGR) said: “I was a bit
nervous when I started the game having flown for hours from Portugal.
But as the game progressed I got my rhythm to win convincingly against
the Turkish.
We are a strong side and I believe in my teammates that we
can gain promotion to the Championship division. We are not bothered
about the pedigree of our opponents and we are not going to play to the
gallery against any team because every team in the group are very
strong.”
Also
El-Sayed Lashin (EGY) said: “It was good winning our first group game
convincingly because we had expected Marcos Madrid to give us a tough
fight but I was when Mohammed El-Beiali was able to beat him. Also our
top player – Omar Assar started well and we hope to take each game as
they come.
Our target is to top the group to be able to fulfil our dream
of playing in the Championship Division in 2018. This is our dream and
target in this competition and we are going to approach every game
having in mind our main target, which is to qualify to the Championship
division.”
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