Nigeria win table tennis’ women doubles’ gold, silver medals

The Nigerian pair of Offiong Edem and Cecilia Akpan on Monday in Rabat won the gold medal in the women’s doubles event of the table tennis competition at the 12th African Games in Morocco.

They beat teammates Funke Oshonaike and Fatimo Bello 3-2 to win the top honour.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Akan and Edem started the game brightly, winning the first two sets 11-7 11-6.

But the pair of Oshonaike and Bello rallied to win the next two sets 11-7 11-2 to take the game to deuce, where Edem and Akan prevailed 13-11 in the game’s fifth set.

The Nigerian teams had on their way to the final beaten Kenya 3-0, Ethiopia 3-0, Chad 3-0 and South Africa 3-0.

They went on to smash Egypt 3-1 and later 3-2, and then Algeria 3-2.