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NTTF begins camping of 20 players for world junior tourney

By Samuel Ifetoye
22 August 2016   |   4:56 am
The camping, which holds at the National Training Centre of the Lagos National Stadium, will be supervised by seven-time Olympian, Segun Toriola.
Tosin Oribamishe is one of the 20 invited junior table tennis players for camping in Lagos.

Tosin Oribamishe is one of the 20 invited junior table tennis players for camping in Lagos.

The Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) will begin camping today to select 20 players, made up of 12 boys and eight girls, who will represent the nation at the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Junior Championship holding in Cape Town, South Africa.

The camping, which holds at the National Training Centre of the Lagos National Stadium, will be supervised by seven-time Olympian, Segun Toriola.

Players called were those that featured at the ITTF African Junior Championship in Algiers where they qualified for the World Juniors.

Also included in the list of invited players were the outstanding players from the National U-16 tournament.

Speaking on the exercise, the NTTF’s President, Wahid Oshodi, said the inclusion of Toriola in the camp of the junior athletes is to give them leverage considering what the seven-time Olympian has done for himself in the game of table tennis in the areas of consistency and discipline.

“This camping becomes necessary as we want to select the best hands among the junior players so that they can also test might with their foreign counterparts at the world juniors. With the experience of Toriola and Michael Oyebode, who were both at Rio Olympic Games, I am confident that camping would have impart on the players and prepare them for the championship,” Oshodi said.

He, however, added that: “The selected players will later go into close camping before the championship in November and they will continue to train in readiness for the competition. Toriola will surely depart to his base after the camping and we hope the coaches around can continue to sharpen the skills of the players before the tournament which has Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria and Tunisia representing Africa in Cape Town, South Africa.”

The players invited are Abayomi Animasahun, Azeez Solanke, Amadi Umeh, Michael Abayomi, Augustine Emmanuel, Jamiu Ayanwale, Ololade Oyenekan, Tobi Falana, Etim Orok, Babafemi Babatunde and Umar Ibrahim for boys and the girls include Tosin Oribamise Agnes Onoja, Ajoke Ojomu, Alimot Ayinla, Rofiat Jimoh, Iyanuoluwa Falana, Vivian Akpan and Sukurat Aiyelabegan.

NTTF will cater for the players’ feeding and accommodation while their states are expected to offset their transport fare.

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