26th August, 2013
Reports from Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos early today say Nigeria’s Segun Toriola has been seeded number 3 in the Main Draws of Men’s Singles of the Lagos International Table Tennis Classics which gets underway from today.
The tournament’s top seed is Omar Assar of Egypt who is the current All Africa Games champion. Second seed of the competition is Mihai Bobocica of Italy, a Romanian-born Italian player, who competed at the Beijing 2008 and 2012 Olympics in London. Number fourth seed is Haruna Quadri of Nigeria who is plying his trade in the Portuguese elite league.
In the Women’s Singles, Han Xing of Congo Brazzaville is the top seed, while Nigerian Funke Oshonaike is number two seed of the competition. Edem Offiong of Nigeria is number three seed.
While some junior players played their games today, the top players will begin their quest for the dollar prize money of the competition tomorrow at Sir Molade Okoya Thomas Sports Hall of the Teslim Balogun Stadium, which has been a beehive of activities since the tourney served off last week.
Meanwhile, Nigerian-born Saheed Idowu, who is playing for Congo Brazzaville, has rubbished the talks that Egyptian Assar would be a threat to his quest to win the competition.
He said he would rather fear the duo of NigerianToriola and Quadri than Assar who had been a club mate in the last few years.
—Taiwo Adelu