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Grassroots table tennis tourney berth at Ikoyi Club

By Samuel Ifetoye
22 October 2016   |   1:16 am
A one day Lagos State table tennis tournament for the junior cadets in the boys and girls’ categories will hold today at the Table Tennis Section of the Ikoyi Club, Lagos.
PHOTO: sportskeeda.com

PHOTO: sportskeeda.com

A one day Lagos State table tennis tournament for the junior cadets in the boys and girls’ categories will hold today at the Table Tennis Section of the Ikoyi Club, Lagos.

The event organised by Hon. Gbolahan Okuneye and friends, will feature 16 players comprising of eight boys and eight girls, who will be competing in the singles event only.

The contest, a grassroots sports development, was to discover talents in the game of table tennis who will step into the shoes of top stars likes seven times Olympian, Segun Toriola, Aruna Quadri and Funke Oshonaike.

Okuneye, who said he decided to put together the tournament together in partnership with his friends, said today’s event would be an experimental one. He said the partnership intends to make the game a yearly competition.

“The event on Saturday was made possible in partnership with my friends. This is our little way of encouraging the younger ones who are interested in the game of table tennis. What we intend to do is to catch them young so that the necessary assistance they need to get to top will be provided.

“It is a grassroots project, and we intend to make it a yearly tournament. As you are aware, our belief is that government alone cannot continue to sponsor sports. Our offer is to also contribute our quota to complement government’s efforts,” he said.

Speaking further, Okuneye, who is a member of the Table Tennis Section of the Ikoyi Club, said: “The reason for the sponsorship is to also expose the cadets table tennis players to competitions because we found out that for these players to actually improve on the game, they also need to play more tournaments to gain exposure.”

Winners and runners-up in today’s contests will be presented prizes.

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