NTTF Organises Trials to Prune Team

The National Training Centre of the Lagos National Stadium will come alive today as the 20 players in camp ahead of the 2016 ITTF World Junior Championship in South Africa will be trim in one-day trials.

According to Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), the players will be pruned to 12 made up of six male and six female that will make the final camping for the championship holding in November 2016.

According to the Coordinator of the camping exercise, Segun Toriola, the players have been given their best in order to be part of the team, adding that the 12-man team that would make the final phase of camping will be known this weekend.

“I am impressed with the response of the players because every one of them wants to make the team to South Africa. For now we will still be watching them because the trial will afford us to pick the best among them for the World Championship in Cape Town, South Africa by end of the year,” he said.

However, the duo of Abayomi Animashaun and Azeez Solanke believe they would make the team having been part of the squad to Algiers where the team picked a spot to the global tournament.

The invited players were part of the team that featured at the ITTF African Junior Championship in Algiers where they qualified for the World Juniors, while outstanding players from the National U-16 tournament also made it to the camp.
President, Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), Wahid Oshodi, the camp becomes necessary as some of the players would learn some of the latest rudiment of the sport.

“The selected players will later go into close camping before the championship in November and they will continue to train in readiness for the competition.

“Segun Toriola will surely depart to his base after the camping and we hope the coaches around can continue to sharpen the skills of the players before the tournament which has Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria and Tunisia representing Africa in Cape Town, South Africa.”