4th Valuejet Para Table Tennis Open Serves Off 

2022 Commonwealth medalists as well as medalists from the just concluded National Sports Festival will compete at the 4th Valuejet Para Table Tennis Open which serves off on Thursday, December 15, at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim Balogun Stadium. 

From Commonwealth silver medalists Ifechukwude Ikpeoyi and Nasiru Sule to Isau Ogunkunle and Faith Obazuaye, the Valuejet Para Table Tennis Open would provide an avenue for them to share from the mouthwatering prize money at stake at the three-day tournament. 

According to the coordinator of the tournament, Sunday Odebode, the aim of this year’s tournament was to use it to select players that will represent Nigeria at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris, France. 

“The para table tennis players made the country proud in Birmingham and we believe this tournament would provide a good platform for them to test might against themselves and we hope we can pick the team from here. This year we are excited that our sponsors – Valuejet believe in the players, especially with their performance at the 2022 Commonwealth Games where they made the country proud with two silver and two bronze medals in the table tennis events of the games,” he said. 

For Odebode, the tournament has provided the platform to identify talents like Ikpeoyi whose addition to the national team has strengthened the women’s team. 

For this year, over 38 events would be competed for in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles with the top four players getting cash prizes for their efforts. 

In his remarks, Vice President, of Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) Adesoji Tayo, the federation would remain grateful to the sponsors for keeping faith in the special athletes adding that this would continue to motivate the players to give their best in a major competition. 

“The federation would be grateful to our sponsors and our host, Lagos State Sports Commission (LSSC) who have not given up on the athletes with their continued support of the tournament despite the economic downturn, they never stop supporting the para table tennis team. We were also motivated by the athletes’ performance at the Commonwealth Games because they were the ones that won medals for table tennis in Birmingham. We hope that this year will throw up more talents as we are hopeful that this year promises to be exciting,” Tayo said. 

The tournament ends on Saturday, December 17 with finals in some of the events as 100 of athletes across the country are expected to battle for honours in 10 classes.