National champion Taiwo Mati and Azeez Solanke who are both making their debut at the 2021 ITTF African Championships, showed class in Nigeria’s group triumph over Cote d’Ivoire and South Africa.
It was Mati that had the toughest match when he confronted West African champion Oba Oba Kizito of Cote d’Ivoire in the first match of the men’s team event. Mati was stretched beyond limit with both players matching each other strength-for-strength and at the end of the tie, it was Mati that earned Nigeria a 1-0 lead.
Olamide Omotayo increased the lead for Nigeria with a convincing 3-0 win over Cedric Oba before Solanke ended the dream of a comeback by the Ivorians.
Against the South Africans, the three matches played by Mati, Omotayo and Solanke lasted for less than an hour for Nigeria to remain unbeaten in the group and advance to the knockout stage.
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Offiong Edem anchored the women’s team against Kenya and Uganda and the ties gave Fatimo Bello and Bukky Ajayi the opportunity to debut at the tournament with both players recording convincing victories over their opponents to progress to the knockout round of the tournament.
Like Nigeria, Egypt recorded 100 percent win in all their matches with Omar Assar and Dina Meshref aching the team’s win over Cameroon, Kenya and Ghana.
The knockout and quarterfinal matches take place today at the Sports Palace Complex in Yaounde.
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