The dwindling fortune of Nigerian Table Tennis
KAYODE KETEEFE
Last Sunday would go down in the annals of Nigerian table tennis sporting enterprise as a black one. It was the day the last athlete in that sporting event, Aruna Quadri, was embarrassingly knocked out of the ongoing Olympics, after all the other three male and female competitors had suffered the same fate. In all honesty, where the game of table tennis is concerned, the Nigeria's expectations at almost all the Olympics had always been average, but this year Olympics had offered an above-average hope for the ping pongers. This optimism was hinged on the fact that the country boasts of some of the most experienced players in the game. The arrowhead of the Nigerian squad, veteran Segun Toriola, was competing in his sixth Olympics at the London 2012, while Funke Oshonaike was in her fifth. Since very few countries could boast of that kind of experience, it was thought Nigeria would translate this comparative advantage into a medal or two in that event, but all that had dissolved into thin air. What made the total failure of the Nigerian team in this event very painful is that all our representatives were booted out within 24 hours of the commencement of the table tennis event. Nigerian last hope, Quadri (who lost 4-2 to Turkish, Bora Vang) was reported to be so distraught by his shocking elimination that he blurted out "I can't believe I am out of the Olympics" in helpless soliloquy. Bu the woeful performance at the Olympics is only a tip of the icebergs of woes that had befallen Nigerian fortune in table tennis. Nigeria used to be the most powerful and indomitable force in that game on the African continent and we were even among the greatest forces in the commonwealth. At present no Nigerian is rated among the top 100 players in the world! This is a country that had produced the legends like Atanda Musa, Olawunmi Majekodunmi. Waheed Ekun, Yomi Bankole, Lasisi Kasali, Bose Kafo, et al, all of whom had been African champions at different times, having been brought to limelight through Asoju Oba Cup. Times were when Nigerian men and women would win all available gold medals as well as all the available silver medals and condemned other countries to be fighting for bronze medals at continental championships. Then the challenge began slowly, when the crafty Egyptians began the plot to crush what they reckoned as unacceptable total domination by the Nigerians. They commissioned a project focusing on developing youth table tennis and gradually became a formidable force. Such was the extent of their development that in the last All Africa Games, Egypt eventually overthrew Nigeria as the best table tennis nation in Africa winning four gold, two silver and four bronzes compared to Nigeria's three gold, five silver one bronze. In men's singles for instance which used to be our birthright, Egypt claimed all the available gold, silver and bronze medals! This is not the first time Nigeria would squandered good fortune in sporting excellence. Remember the Tessema Cup for the U-20 footballers of those days. Shortly after the biennial competition was inaugurated and the trophies of the first and second edition having been claimed by Algeria and Egypt, Nigeria simply seized the crown with imperial authority winning the cup for four consecutive times in 1983, 1985, 1987 and 1989. But then she relapsed into an ignominious slumber from 1989 till 2005 when Samson Siasia successfully led a talented team of youths to reclaim the title. There is also the case of African Women Championship, Nigeria kept winning all the biennial championships from 1991 till 2008 (a whopping seven titles!) when she allowed Equatorial Guinea to dethrone her. Although the nation reclaimed the title from the megalomaniac Equatorial Guinea in the 2010 edition, the fact that Ghana and Cameroon prevented the Super Falcons from competing in the last All Africa Games and the London Olympic respectively might be a pointer that Nigeria's domination is getting to an end. Apart from the Egyptians, the Congolese conceived the idea of sneaking into the powerhouse of African ping pong and began a programme channeled into gradual nurturing of Congolese talents via acquired expertise of imported professionals. Soon, Congo, too, had started winning medals. What makes our dwindling fortune in table tennis painful is that while Nigeria was dominating the game Egypt was dominating event like swimming, amassing incredible numbers of gold. Alas, while Egyptians have found answers to our table tennis domination, we still look with awe when the Egyptian "water mermaids" leap into water, we have never put in place strategic plan to challenge their domination and it continues triumphantly till today. When we were growing up, you could see table tennis standards or the more ubiquitous improvised boards in almost every compound. As a matter of fact every compound had local champion and neighborhood competitions were intense. But this is not so any longer, today in a whole city; the number of table tennis boards you would see is so scanty that you would wonder if the game is not sinking into oblivion in Nigeria. We definitely need to re strategise to save our table tennis; a comprehensive youth development programme in the game should urgently be commissioned to revive the beautiful sport. |
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