Nigeria has emerged as the overall champion of the 2023 ITTF African Para Championships which ended on September 23, 2023, in Giza, Egypt.
Nigeria won 12 gold medals to dethrone Egypt as the new para table tennis champion in Africa. The Nigerians dominated the singles event to pick up most of the tickets to the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
The three-day tournament had hosts Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Mauritius, Cameroon, South Africa, Kenya, and Cote d’Ivoire competing in the singles, doubles and mixed doubles events.
From the 14 tickets available for the Paralympic Games, Nigeria picked nine while Egypt settled for five in the singles events. However, the host team dominated the doubles and mixed doubles events with five gold medals while Nigeria picked two.
In the overall medals table of the 2023 ITTF African Para Championships, Nigeria picked 12 gold medals while Egypt won 10 to surrender their dominance to the West African nation.
The medalists are gold medals: Faith Obazuaye (women class 10); Kehinde Lawal (women class 9); Ifechukwude Ikpeoyi (women class 5); Femi Alabi (men class 10); Biola Adesope (men class 9); Victor Farinloye (men class 8) Kayode Alabi (men class 6); Bolawa Akingbemisilu (men class 5); Isau Ogunkunle (men class 4) and the silver medalists are: Shoremekun Ganiyat (women class 6 – 8); Faith Obiora (women class 5), Chukwuemeka Francis (men class 9); Femi Fabiyi (men class 8), Mustafa Isa (men class 6) while the silver medalists are: Kate Oputa (women class 5); Tajudeen Agunbiade (men class 9); Nasiru Sule (men class 5).
The president Para Table Tennis Federation who also doubles as President of the Paralympic Committee Nigeria (PCN), Sunday Odebode expressed his excitement on the results commended the players for making the country proud and urged them to set their gaze on winning medals at the Paralympic games in Paris next year.
President, of the African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF), Khaled El-Salhy commended all the participating teams and described the tournament as a success, especially with the facilities and hospitality provided by the Egyptian Table Tennis Federation (ETTF).
