Oil/Gas Games: NNPC, Shell win table tennis team event

Team NNPC yesterday emerged winners of the table tennis team event at the on-going Nigeria Oil & Gas Industry Games in Lagos.

The trio of Keye Surajudeen Adekunle, Hassan Aliyu and Maiyefa Monday proved too difficult a nut to crack for their counterparts from Chevron represented by Oyinbo Olaleye, Okeifa Francis and Segun Francis by winning 3-0 to be crowned champions of the event.

The more experienced Team, NNPC used a combination of good serves and strokes to subdue their opponents to the admiration of the crowd in the entertaining encounter decided at the table tennis hall of Ikoyi Club 1938.

In the women category, three time defending champions, Mojisola Adeniran and Chizoba Onuoha of Shell defeated the duo of Adefiseso Adetola and Adjeke Felicia of NNPC to emerge winners.

An excited Mojisola said she was overjoyed retaining the title with her teammate because younger players boasted to stop them prior to the competition.

“I’m really overjoyed with the victory because it is not easy winning it for the third time. Many young player sare getting stronger every year and some of them even boasted we’re not going to survive the preliminaries,” she stated.

The singles preliminaries will begin today at the same venue.

The heavy down pour witnessed in Lagos yesterday disrupted proceedings at the tennis section as all the eight courts were flooded, which prompted some of the matches to be abandoned with the officials announcing that the event will continue today.

Meanwhile, huge turnout of competitors was recorded in the swimming event yesterday.
The swimming event, which is holding at the Chevron Recreation Centre, Gbagada, Lagos saw almost all the participating companies represented in both the men’s and women’s events.

In some of the heats decided yesterday, Nerole Cook of Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), competing in the 33.33m backstroke for women returned a time of 31:26secs to place first ahead of Dada Oritsetimi of Shell (31:30secs), while Otokini Ogwuche of Chevron took the third position in a time of 32:58secs.

The men’s 66.66m backstroke was keenly contested between Basil Aleibiri of Nigeria Content Development & Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and Jaja Michael of Eroton Exploration with Aleibiri narrowly taking the first position at 52:73secs, Michael second in a time of 53:02secs and was followed by Nyanwa Cornelius of Total, who returned in a time of 54:61secs to also qualify for the next stage to be decided today.