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Tag: Olalekan Okusan

My dream, aspiration for Rio olympic games – Adekuoroye

Odunayo Adekuoroye was known globally as the dancing wrestler because of her distinctive celebration style after every victory. She has become a known face in the sport that she was among the few athletes invited globally to take part in the lucrative Indian Wrestling League.

From 2014 till date, Adekuoroye has won a lot of laurels for Nigeria including a bronze medal at the 2015 World Championship to become the second Nigerian after Ifeoma Iheanacho, who won bronze medals in 2009 and 2010.

A determined Adekuoroye told NationSport yesterday that she is ready to become the first Nigerian to win an Olympics medal in wrestling.

“I am still believing in my dream which is to become an Olympics champion and the first Nigerian to achieve such feat. By the grace of God, I will not relent in my training and make sure I put in my best to actualize my dream of winning an Olympics medal,” she said.

As long as Adekuoroye is willing to put Nigeria on the world map, she is not too happy with the preparation to the Rio Olympic Games, saying, “Most of my opponents have been featured in nothing less than three major competitions this year, while I only took part in one and these are the same athletes I am expected to compete against in Brazil.

“With just 100 days to the Olympics, we have not really started our preparation and I am still wondering that despite all the honours that wrestling has brought to this nation, most of the country’s millionaires haven not deem it fit to support the sport but they are all looking forward to the athletes to win medals. This is not too good,” she lamented.

The African champion would forever remain grateful to the General Overseer of Mountain of Fire Miracles Ministry (MFM), Pastor Danile Olukoya for his unflinching support for her, adding that the cleric has continued to inspire her with tremendous support.

Adekuoroye is the first Nigerian wrestler to secure her place at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio after claiming third place in the women’s 53kg freestyle at the 2015 World Championships in Las Vegas, USA.

dekuoroye, a 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medalist, recorded a 10-0 Technical Fall (TF) against Belarusian Nadzeya Shushko and then a 4-0 win by Pin over Asian champion Zhong Xuechun of China in the second repechage round at The Orleans Arena in U.S.

However, four other female wrestlers, including two males have joined Adekuoroye to secure their spots at the Rio Olympic Games.

April 27, 2016
Record entries for ITTF premier lotto Nigerian Open

For the first time in the last three editions, the annual ITTF Premier Lotto Nigerian Open has record entries of participants for this year’s tournament scheduled for May 18 to 22.

Since its inception in 2013, the tournament competitors have not exceeded 100 but from the list of registered participants for 2016 edition as at Wednesday, April 27, more than 120 players have been confirmed for the championship holding at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim Balogun Stadium.

According to the Tournament Director, Ranti Olajide, the quality of players coupled with the number of entries is a reflection of the organisation and the standard of play.

“I must tell you that this year we are having more players coming from Europe, unlike in the past. Also, players across the world are now beginning to realize that Nigeria is a mecca of table tennis in Africa considering the achievement of our local players taking a cue from Aruna Quadri’s global resurgence, which has now become a rallying point for all the players across the world,” he said.

Olajide, who is a certified ITTF-certified international referee, believes the presence of the top players from Europe would halt the rivalry between Nigeria and Egypt which has dominated the tournament in the last three editions. “I think this year, the tournament will be particularly competitive with the players coming Europe and they will surely give the home players a run for their money,” he added.

Officials from Egypt and Algeria will handle proceedings at the five-day tournament, which is the highest prize money ITTF World in the 2016 Challenge Series, with $46,000 (N13.8m) at stake.

Six events are to be competed for and these include singles (men and women); doubles (men and women) as well as U-21 boys and girls. According to the prospectus for the tournament, any player entering for the tournament will agree to abide by all ITTF rules and by the rules and regulations of the Organizing Committee.

April 27, 2016
Tennis: Team Nigeria knows olympics fate next week

The fate of Team Nigeria to win the continent’s sole slot in the men’s table tennis team event of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games will be decided next week after the May 2016 ranking is released by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).

After its excellent performance at the World Team Championship in Malaysia, Team Nigeria has edged out Egypt from the slot to be listed as the highest rated men’s team from Africa.

According to the Olympics qualification system issued by ITTF, One (1) team from each continent (6 teams) will be selected as follows: “For each continent, the highest ranked team in the May 2016 ITTF Olympic Team Ranking list, which has an NOC and a total of two (2) athletes qualified through any of the Olympic qualification methods, will receive one (1) additional athlete quota place from the Team Quota (22 places in total) to form a team of three (3) athletes.”

It added: “In the event that, within a given continent no NOC has qualified two athletes, then the highest ranked team, based on the May 2016 ITTF Olympic Team Ranking list, with one single athlete qualified through any of the Olympic qualification methods will receive two additional athlete quota places from the Team Quota to form a team of three athletes. If the jurisdiction of an NOC covers more than one (1) ITTF affiliated member, the ranking of the highest ranked affiliated member of that NOC in the May 2016 ITTF Olympic Team Ranking list will be taken into account for qualification purposes.

In the Olympic team ranking released in April, Nigeria occupied 26^th place to be the best rated men’s team from Africa, while Egypt was second placing 32^nd in the rating.

At the London 2012 Olympic Games, Egypt beat Nigeria to the slot for the first time as Nigeria has won the slots since 1992 when table tennis became medal hauling event at the Olympic Games.

However, the President, African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF), Khaled El-Salhy, had told NationSport in Algiers recently that Nigeria may pick the slot ahead of Egypt in the men’s event while Egypt will represent the continent in the women team event.

“Thus as per the published ITTF ranking list as of April 2016, the current situation now is that for men, Nigeria is in front to take the qualification card for team event in Rio with position no. 26 while Egypt is coming next with position no. 32. For the women, Egypt is in front to take the qualification card for team event in Rio with position no. 31 while Nigeria is coming next with position no. 40. This is for sure in case the application to count on ranking of April 2016, while we have to wait as the ranking list of May is the one to be taken into consideration after adding some more points through Kuwait, Qatar and Polish Opens,” the ATTF boss said.

April 26, 2016
ITTF names Egypt, Algeria officials for 2016 Nigerian Open

The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has named Egypt’s Mohamed Dawlatly and Nabil Almamoon as competition manager and referee while Algeria’s Boudjehem Abdallah is the assistant referee for this year’s ITTF Premier Lotto Nigerian Open (Lagos 2016) serving off on May 18 to 22 at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos.

Mohamed Dawlatly is an Information Technology (IT) expert with the world table tennis ruling body and an experienced competition manager whose last duty was at the World Team Championship in Malaysia.

For Nabil Almamoon, it his fourth visit to Nigeria having handled the three previous editions in Lagos and the experienced referee is one of the respected officials in the world and he has handled major tournaments, including the 2015 ITTF Africa Senior Championships.

For his understanding of the game, as well his performance in previous editions, Almamoon will be in Lagos and he will be assisted by Algeria’s Boudjehem Abdallah, who was the referee at the 2016 ITTF African Junior & Cadet Championships held in Algiers.

According to tournament director, Oluranti Lajide, more than 30 officials will handle proceedings at the championship with Benin Republic, Togo and Cameroun being represented.

Also 26 Nigerian international and national umpires will be on duty, while a refresher course for the officials will precede the kick-off of the competition.

“We are also going to update the knowledge of all the officials handling matches at the tournament because there are new rules and regulations, which they must also be acquainted with. We are organising a refresher course for all selected umpires and this will be handled by an expert from ITTF, Malaysia’s Cyril Sen,” Olajide said.

The ITTF Premier Lotto Nigerian Open is the highest prize money tournament in the Challenge Series of the ITTF World Tour, with players jostling for $46,000 (N13.8m).

Six events are to be competed for and these include singles (men and women); doubles (men and women) as well as U-21 boys and girls.

According to the prospectus for the tournament, any player entering for the tournament will agree to abide by all ITTF rules and by the rules and regulations of the Organizing Committee.

April 26, 2016
ATTF confirms Nigeria, Egypt, two others for World Juniors

The African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF) has confirmed Nigeria, Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria as the continent’s flag bearers at the 2016 ITTF World Junior Championship holding in Cape Town, South Africa in October.

In a statement by the President of ATTF, Khaled El-Salhy, the four teams confirmed their qualification among the 12 teams that featured at the last ITTF African Junior & Cadet Championship in Algiers.

Egypt and Nigeria will compete in the boys and girls events at the global tournament while the girls’ team from Algeria and the boys’ team from Tunisia will join the two continental superpowers at the tournament holding in November this year.

Aside the four countries that will represent Africa at the championship, host – South Africa will also be presenting its boys and girls teams for the competition.

Similarly, the continental body also named the eight-man team that will constitute an African team for the 2016 World Cadet Challenge in China.

The team is dominated by players from Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria, while Nigeria and Congo Brazzaville completed the list.

Cadet champions – Egypt’s duo of Marwan Abdelwahab and Rinad Fathy top the list. Others are Tunisia’s pair of Aboubaker Bourass and Manel Baklouti as well as Algeria’s Malissa Nasri and Abdelbasset Chaichi. Other members of the team are Nigeria’s Esther Oribamise and Congo Brazzaville’s Regis Kiassi. The ITTF World Cadet Challenge holds on October 21 to 29.

April 25, 2016
ITTF Nigerian Open gets title sponsor

Nigeria’s leading gaming company, Premier Lotto has thrown its weight behind the fourth edition of the ITTF World Tour Nigerian Open (Lagos 2016) holding from May 18 to 22nd at the Sir Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of the Teslim Balogun Stadium.

This partnership with the ITTF/NTTF means that Premier Lotto becomes the title sponsor of Nigeria’s foremost international sports tournament for this year. This partnership is in addition to the numerous support that the Sir Chief Kessington Adebutu owned company has given to the development of various sports and education in the country. The famed philanthropist is well known for his love for grassroots and school sports development.

According to the President, Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), Wahid Oshodi, this is an excellent development for table tennis as the sport is getting a much needed boost from the support of Premier Lotto and furthermore it shows their continued commitment to sports development

“We are very happy that Premier Lotto is coming on board alongside the Lagos State Government who have been the backbone of the tournament since inception and this is a big boost for the sport in Nigeria. The competition will now be known as The ITTF Premier Lotto Nigerian Open.

“We are expecting over 30 of the worlds top players and olympic qualifiers including our own Aruna Quadri and the peerless Segun Toriola among others. We must also thank those companies that have continued to support this event as it continues to grow from year to year. We hope that other corporate bodies will come on board to emulate Premier Lotto as we are getting closer to the kick off of the competition,” Oshodi said.

The Nigerian Open is the foremost Challenge Series tournament in the ITTF calendar with participants jostling for $46,000 (N13.8m) this year.

Six events have been listed by the world table tennis ruling body and they are singles (men and women); doubles (men and women) as well as U-21 boys and girls.

The players will be using the tournament to garner world ranking points as well as make it to the end-of-the-year ITTF World Tour Finals.

The tournament, which will be heralded in by the NTTF’s U16 Super League Finals at the same venue on the 14th of May promises to deliver a week of excitement for Nigeria’s teeming sports fans.

April 21, 2016
Abiodun returns to ITTF World Tour in Poland

After his scintillating performance at the 2016 World Team Championship in Malaysia, Portugal-based Bode Abiodun will today returns to action as he competes at the ITTF World Tour tagged Polish Open.

Abiodun who is likely to make the Nigeria’s men team to the Rio Olympic Games has been pitched against Panama’s Alberto Gorgona and Russia’s Fedor Kuzmin in Group 31 of the preliminary round of the men’s singles event. Abiodun, who is ranked 185 in the World, will battle the Russian, who is rated higher than the Nigerian.

Abiodun’s first game will be against the Panama boy while his last encounter in the group holds tomorrow against the highly-rated Russian. One player is expected to progress to the knockout stage of the singles event.

Also, another African team – Egypt has a six-man team taking part in the five-day tournament holding in Warsaw.

Omar Assar is leading the team to the tournament and he has been listed among the seeded players for the competition while his sibling, Khalid will be campaigning from the preliminary stage.

Also in the North African team are African U-21 champion, Shady Magdy as well as Nadeen El-Dawlatly and Galila Nasser.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Kasumi Ishikawa is the top seed followed immediately by her compatriot, Ai Fukuhara, with Mima Ito being the No. 4 seed; notably both Kasumi Ishikawa and Ai Fukuhara have each won five ITTF World Tour Women’s Singles titles, Mima Ito has two such successes against her name.

However, there are four former ITTF World Tour Polish Open Women’s Singles winners on duty in Warsaw.
Feng Tianwei who emerged successful in all Singaporean final in 2008, when she beat Wang Yuegu is on duty, as is Li Jiao of the Netherlands and Korea’s Seo Hyowon.

Li Jiao won in 2010 when she accounted for Spain’s Shen Yanfei in the final; more recently in 2013, Seo Hyowon emerged successful beating for China’s Sheng Dandan in the title deciding contest.

At the 2016 ITTF World Tour Polish Open, Feng Tianwei is the no.3 seed, Seo Hyowon is the no.6 seed, and Li Jiao is the no.13 seed.

April 19, 2016
ITF lists Nigeria for World Team Qualifiers in Tunisia

Impressed with the performance of Nigeria at the last African Junior Championship, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) has listed Nigeria among the four teams that will compete at the qualifiers for the World Team Championship.

According to the General Manager of Confederation of African Tennis (CAT), Hichem Riani, Nigeria’s selection was based on the team’s outing in the U-14 event of the AJC hosted by South Africa.

In the boys’ u-14 qualifiers, Nigeria will compete against Seychelles, Mauritius and host – Tunisia with the two top teams qualifying for the ITF World Team Championship holding in Spain.

For the girls’ U-14, host – Tunisia will battle for the two slots with South Africa, Burundi and Egypt. The clay courts of La Marsa in Tunis will host the qualifiers on June 3 to 9.

In the Junior Davis’ Cup qualifiers for U-16 boys and girls, Tunisia will fight for the slots against South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Cote D’Ivoire, Mauritius and Burundi.

For a national junior coach, Mohammed Ubale, this development shows that Nigeria is coming up in the continent having beaten the likes Egypt and Morocco who are dominant in the game in Africa.

“I think this is a good development for us in Nigeria that our players will be competing against the best for the qualifiers and i am hopeful that we can make the final slots. In the past, it was the North Africans that used to make it to the qualifiers, but Nigeria’s performance at the AJC has helped to displace the North Africans and I hope we can capitalise on this and qualify for the main event in Spain later in the year,” Ubale said.

It will be recalled that Michael Osewa edged out three top seeded players to play in the final of the U-14 of the AJC where he was defeated by his Seychelles counterpart to settle for silver.

April 18, 2016
Sports Ministry must support NTTF to lift table tennis – Omoniyi

Dotun Omoniyi believes all the feats achieved by table tennis in the last two years should be attributed to the singular efforts of the President of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), Wahid Oshodi, whom he described as a passionate lover of the sport.

However, he charged the Ministry of Sports to support the federation in their bid to use the sport to bring more laurels to the country.

“I think if there is anybody that should be commended for the feats achieved by table tennis in the country, it is the NTTF President. He has used his resources and time to lift the fortune of the game since coming on board. He is passionate about the sport as well as the players and this has continued to yield results for the country. But the Ministry of Sports must also come to his aid because he cannot continue to do this to the detriment of his hard-earned resources. If not for his efforts, I don’t think our players will feature in the ITTF African Junior & Cadet Championship in Algiers. It is high time that the ministry gave table tennis the needed attention because the sport has continued to put Nigeria on the world map,” he said.

Omoniyi, who tutored the six-man national junior team in Algiers also tasked states associations to hit the ground running as their efforts would help to unearth new players for the country. “I believe the state sports ministry should also support NTTF by organising tournament and clinic for young people so that we can have more players coming through the rank in the sport.”

Listing few of the feats recorded by table tennis, Omoniyi said: “If Aruna Quadri has been a footballer, I am sure by now he would have been celebrated better. How can they be honouring athlates without considering Aruna Quadri, who is now ranked 29 in the world and was also named the ITTF 2014 Player of the Year by the world table tennis ruling body. I think with all these few feats, table tennis should be well-funded to deliver more laurels for Nigeria.”

April 12, 2016
ITTF: Nigeria beats Tunisia to second spot as Egypt rules

Despite presenting the lowest number of players coupled with conceding the top place in Egypt, Nigeria’s six-man team finished second in the overall medal table ahead of Tunisia at the 2016 ITTF African Junior & Cadet Championship which ended yesterday in Algiers.

However, Egypt’s dominance at the seven-day championship was obvious as the 22-man team from Cairo claimed all the 15 gold medals at stake in the competition.

Being the host – Algeria’s 20-man team failed to finish among the top three teams despite dominating Nigeria in the female event, but the North African managed to settle for fourth place behind Tunisia which finished third with three silver medals.

To claim the overall second place, Nigeria with the lowest number of players amassed four silver and four bronze medals in the teams and doubles events of the competition.

Aside finishing second Nigeria boys and girls teams qualified for the 2016 ITTF World Junior Championship in South Africa while Esther Oribamise also made the list of African eight-man team for the 2016 World Cadet Challenge holding in Shanghai, China in October.

Tunisia has three silver and five bronze medals while Algeria which finished fourth had two silver and five bronze medals.

Other teams that picked up medals are Congo Brazzaville with two bronze medals while Angola and Mauritius won one bronze medal each.

Meanwhile, Egypt was adjudged the best teams for sweeping all the gold medals in 15 events contested for at the competition.

A satisfied President of African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF), Khaled El-Salhy commended the participating teams while urging the teams that qualified for the World Junior Championship to begin preparation in order to put up a good show in Cape Town come November

April 12, 2016