Despite the inability to get the needed support from Ministry of Youth and Sports for the just concluded ITTF World Championships, Segun Toriola believes table tennis needs assistance just as he praised the performance of Olajide Omotayo for qualifying from the group.
Toriola, who captained Team Nigeria, told NationSport that despite the glory table tennis has brought to the country, the sport must be compensated with more support from those in charge of sports in the country.
“I don’t know what they want table tennis to do to get the attention of those in charge of sports. Under the leadership of outgoing board led by Wahid Oshodi, the sport has gained more global attention that what it was and we now have our players ranked among the best in the world. So it is vital for those in charge of sports to reward these feats with adequate support. It was cheer passion and patriotism that sometime made the players to decide to sponsor ourselves to competitions despite little support from government. It is high time all these stopped so that we can have more of our players coming through the ranks,” the former African champion said.
Toriola was particularly thrilled that upcoming players like Omotayo caused one of the upsets at the World Championships and he described this as commendable for Omotayo. “I am impressed with what Omotayo put up in Germany and by this he has shown that he is getting mature and with time, he can be listed among the best in the sport. but I will appeal that he needs support to be able to attend World Tours so that he can be playing regularly with some of these top players,” he added