By Dare Ojelade
Following the on going Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), which kick off on May 18th, 2021, at the ( Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall) Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere Lagos.
The Founder and Co-owner of Ozone Motors Ltd & Ozone Motors Table Tennis Club, Mr.Taiwo Ayodele-Eletu and Idowu Ayodele-Eletu, immensely commented the efforts of the organisers of the competition since it was established in the year 2013 , and still doing well till date.
Ozone Motors Table Tennis Club is a Nigeria based table tennis academy with full facilities to encourage player who wants to do well in table tennis as a career and more. The club is in good partnership with a Portugal based Tennis Club, CTM Table Tennis club Lagos in Algarve , Portugal.
Mr Taiwo, expressed that the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation, NTTF competition has always been interesting and entertaining over the years, which triggered his passion to join the table tennis circle in the year 2017 precisely. There in the circle is the top rated Nigerian table tennis player , Aruna Quadri , who is the number one in Africa and ranked number twenty in the world. He has been on this lead train for the past eight to nine months till date.
He mentioned that this event is meant to be an international competition as we have it every year, where countries in other continents participate. But the organisers decided to pipe low on it, so as not to contact or further spread the dangerous virus, Covid-19; therefore restrict it within Nigeria only. In addition, the rigorous measures and risk attached to traveling in and out of any country during the reigning period of the pandemic is another reason the organisers has decided to follow the due protocol on the outbreak. This is the first season of it kind since the establishment of the competition, where we don’t invite participants from other countries due to the outbreak, he said.
Despite the Nigeria economy situation today, the Nigeria Open Tournament has been seeing lots of improvements and Success in regards to the athletes , their Performances have really been very high, and in terms of the organization, we have always believe in improving from the previous edition.
Hence, he believes that the future of this program is very bright, and can say that authoritatively, because the total cash price for this competition is about #4.5 million, if not mistaken. This makes it a step forward, considering the pandemic and how the economy has been affected, still calving out such huge ransom of money is a great achievement so far.
Speaking with thegazellenews.com correspondence, Mr. Taiwo in his statement seeks for the Intervention of the government to do more in the area of sport in Nigeria.
Just like other sports, Table tennis is a sport that involves more money. Checking the equipments like Racket, Rubber, Table Tennis kits etc. A racket goes as high as #200,000, and a pair of rubber is about #80,000, the black and red. For a professional player who plays often and very well, I don’t think such player will use a pair of rubber for more than maybe maximum of 2-3 months before it’s due for replacement.
Across the world now, Aruna Quadri has made Nigeria proud, he is presently the face of the country when it comes to table tennis. Therefore, we need to build more talents like Aruna Quadri. This actually prompted the establishment of our own academy, Ozone Motors Table Tennis Club, He expressed.
