16 players fight for LSTTA Junior Championship Titles

All is now set for the grand finale of the Lagos State Table Tennis Association (LSTTA) Junior Championships tagged, Elicris Table Tennis Cup, with 16 junior and cadet players set to battle for the prize monies at the tournament.

According to the organisers, the event is a developmental programme organised to improve the junior athletes’ skills, discover talents and promote grassroots sports development.

The preliminary round that began on December 14 at the Indoor Sports Hall of the National Stadium had 84 junior and cadet players from various clubs in Lagos State.

The players comprised 24 junior boys, 16 junior girls, 32 cadet boys and 12 cadet girls, with eight qualifying from each category of the event for today’s semifinals at the Elicris Place, Ikeja, Lagos.

According to LSTTA Chairman, Tunji Lawal, the initiative had athletes train rigorously and compete in healthy rivalry for supremacy. “It will indeed aid improved performance and enable LSTTA to have more athletes to represent the state at the next National Youth Games”.

“We are very grateful to the sponsors for keeping faith with the staging of this year’s edition and we hope the tournament can be sustained to help us to continue to unearth talents for the state and Nigeria as a nation,” Lawal said.

In the grand finale, the cadet boys title will be competed for by Abdulsalam Lateef, Issa Sultan, Adebayo Habeeb and Adegoke Wariz, while the battle for the coveted trophy in the cadet girls will be jostled for by Faiza Musbau, Adeyemi Rokibat, Aishat Adebayo and Adegbola Testimony.

Defending champion in the boys’ junior, Tobi Adebakin made it to the last four and he will battle against Joseph Emmanuel, Adeoye Hussein and Ogunshakin Okiki. The battle for supremacy in the junior girls has Joy Emmanuel, Aminat Aregbesola, Summer Balikis and Aishat Rabiu.