‘Union Bank wants to win all tournaments’

After a successful campaign at the just concluded Nigeria Table Tennis Federation U-16 Super League, where its player, Augustine Emmanuel, beat Michael Abayomi, also from Lagos State, 4-1 to emerge as champion, Union Bank Table Tennis Club players say they want to win every trophy available in the land.

The team almost claimed another victory at the just concluded ITTF World Tour, tagged Nigeria Open 2016, but the opposition proved too tough form the young Nigerians.

Some of the players got to the last 16 of the competition before succumbing to the superior fireworks of world class players that came for the tournament.

They include Bello Ahmed, who was beaten by Nigeria-born Portuguese based Bode Abiodun.

The most interesting performer was Rilwan Akanbi, who lost to the eventual winner of the 2016 ITTF Nigeria Open 2016, Benath Olah, from Finland in the round of 32.

Parading over 15 players at the Nigerian Open, head coach of Union Bank Table Tennis Club, Samson Ajayi, reasoned that the standard of the World Tour was a little bit above his players, adding, however, that the exposure gained from the competition cannot be quantified hence his team needs more of such exposures.