Tokyo 2020 bound Paralympians and Sydney 2000 gold medalists- Tajudeen Agunbiade and Olufemi Alabi were the star players for Team Nigeria in the final of the men’s class 9 and 10 at the maiden Valuejet Para Table Tennis Open which ended at the weekend in Lagos.
The three-day tournament attracted players from host – Nigeria, South Africa, Algeria, Morocco, Togo, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire with 44 titles at stake as well as N10.8 million prize money.
In the men’s double final, Agunbiade partnered Alabi to win the title beating the duo of Theo Cogil of South Africa and Karim Bounedouha of Algeria. The tie ended 3-1 (7-11, 11-1, 11-9, 11-7).
In the singles tie between Agunbiade and Bounedouha, both player gave good displays but it was Nigerian that laughed last with 11-8, 16-18, 11-6, 5-11, 11-9 (3-2) to give Nigeria a 2-0 lead.
In the singles class 9 and 10, Agunbiade and Alabi claimed the titles to add to their medals at the tournament.
An excited Agunbiade described the game as energy-sapping. “The games were tough but me and my teammates are very happy to win the team event. I just want to use this opportunity to thank the sponsor, Valuejet for giving us this platform and urge other corporate organizations to support Para Table Tennis and expose us to more international tournaments to enable us meet new players,” the 2000 Sydney Paralympic gold medalist said.
Chairman of Valuejet, Kunle Soname assured that the tournament has come to stay. “This tournament will be bigger next year. You can see lots of players around and this has been a huge success for the fact that this is the first time an event like this is holding in Nigeria.
“I got a whisper from the President of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) that the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has written to make this an annual event in their calendar. For me, nothing can be more exciting than this,” Soname added.
The tournament was put together by Sunday Odebode Foundation in collaboration with NTTF while it was bankrolled by Valuejet Airline.
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