Nigeria will not take part in the women’s team event of the 2016 ITTF African Senior Table Tennis Championships, which began in Morocco on Monday after they failed to present at least three female players for the competition.The country will however be able to challenge Egypt in the men’s team event. Nigerian players will play on Tuesday.The qualifiers for the 2017 World Table Tennis Championships and the 2018 World Team Table Tennis Championships will emerge from the Morocco event. Nigeria also failed to present a women’s team at the 2016 World Team Championships in Malaysia.
According to the President of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation, Enitan Oshodi, the country could not present the female players due to a paucity of funds.“Only Funke Oshonaike and the men’s team who could afford to sponsor themselves to Morocco are there for the competition,” he said.“The federation could not afford to take all the players down there because the money to fly them to Morocco was not available. It is quite unfortunate.”Nigeria will be represented by Aruna Quadri, Segun Toriola, Nurudeen Hassan and Olajide Omotayo in the men’s singles and men’s team events, while Oshonaike will compete in the women’s singles and mixed doubles events.The Egyptian team led by Omar Assar won the 2015 edition of the competition in Cairo, Egypt, while Nigeria finished second.Tunisia, Congo, Algeria and Ghana are also represented at the competition.
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