17th August, 2017
Table Tennis
John Peters, an Assistant Referee who officiated at the just concluded Seamaster ITTF Challenge Nigeria Open, on Thursday described the competition as “highly competitive “.Peters told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the highly competitive nature of the tournament led to the ouster of some highly ranked players in the earlier stages.
“We saw many upsets, many unexpected situations. Many past winners didn’t even get to the medal stage.
“This development goes to show that the quality of the tournament has improved. This proved that it was not a sure thing for previous winners to continue to win,” he said.
The ITTF certified blue badge umpire told NAN that some Nigerian players showed much improvement in their game during the championships.
READ: Home-based Eagles beat Kano Pillars 1-0 in friendly
“Bode Abiodun particularly made a whole lot of progress to win the match against his higher ranked compatriot and Africa’s number one ranked player; Aruna Quadri in the semifinal.
“Unfortunately for us, the women aren’t making much progress like their male counterparts.
“Our women in both the senior, junior and cadet categories have a whole lot more to do, in order to get to that stage of being sure to win medals in future editions, ” he said.
NAN reports that the five-day event which attracted players from no fewer than 22 countries served-off on Aug. 9 at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Sports Hall, Teslim Balogun Stadium, was dominated by Egypt.
Egyptians Assar Omar and Meshref Dina were eventually crowned as the winners of the men and women’s singles events, while France and Hungary won the men and women’s doubles of the challenge.
A total of 99 men and 55 women competed in the keenly contested battles for the 46,000 dollars prize money at stake.