Jericho High School dominates Funke Treasure Table Tennis Championships

Girls from Jericho High School, Eleyele, Ibadan dominated the four-day Funke Treasure Table Tennis Championship (F3TC), which ended at the Indoor Sports Hall of the Adamasingba Stadium, Ibadan at the weekend.

At the competition meant for the girl-child, Kadijat Okanlawon of Jericho High beat the opposition to win the N100, 000 cash prize, as well as the F3TC Cup, among other items.

Faith Oluwafemi also of Jericho High School won the N75, 000 second place cash prize, Ayisat Ojolowo of Ibadan Grammar School Molete got N50, 000 for coming third, while Kaosara Oyelami of Methodist Grammar School Bodija finished fourth to earn N25, 000.

Speaking at the event, the sponsor, Funke-Treasure Durodola, who is the assistant director of programmes at the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), revealed that F3TC was aimed at changing the lives of the ordinary girl-child into extraordinary women.

“I am an ordinary person with extraordinary ideas who want to make extraordinary life out of this young ones. This is a private initiative and self funded. Ibadan is my place of birth and this is my way of giving back to my society,” she said.

The event was not limited to table tennis as there were also empowerment sessions, where the girls were taught financial literacy, reproduction and health, and the detriment of drug abuse.

“This was a well orchestrated initiative for me to give a ray of hope to that girl-child who feels helpless and displaced in a society that subjects her to unrealistic cultural and religious standards with little or no idea what the future holds for her,” Durodola said.

Among the sports dignitaries at the competition was five-time Olympian, Bosede Kaffo, who is the head coach of F3TC.

The championship, which was in three categories featured girls from secondary schools who already knew how to play table tennis, the basic learners in primary schools, who were taught how to play and others trained to becomes coaches.