Nigeria female team out of 2018 ITTF World Team Championships
The Nigerian female team has been ruled out of 2018 World Team Championships by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) as a result of missing the 2016 ITTF Africa Championships held in Morocco.
It was the inability of Nigeria to compete in the team event that stopped them from making the cut as it was only Olufunke Oshonaike that was able to sponsor herself to the tournament, which she claimed the women singles title at the expense of Egypt’s Dina Meshref.
The championship, scheduled to hold from April 29 to May 6 in Halmstad, Sweden will have Egypt leading five other African female teams.
However, the world table tennis ruling body has confirmed the men’s teams of Nigeria and Egypt as well as five other African countries for the 2018 World Team Championships.
Nigeria and Egypt make the list of teams that qualified automatically for the tournament based on their world rating and performance at the 2016 edition in Malaysia but they are expected to campaign in the second division after both teams failed to make it to the Championship 2016.
Unlike Nigeria, Egypt and Togo, who qualified based on the outing in 2016, the likes of Algeria, Congo Brazzaville, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia made the cut following their performance at the 2016 African Championship in Morocco.
Egypt is the only female team that made the automatic cut for the championship while the likes of Algeria, Congo Brazzaville, South Africa, Morocco and Tunisia picked their slots in Sweden following their performance and presence at the 2016 African Championship in Morocco. division in Ex-international, Waidi Akanni, yesterday urged the home-based Super Eagles to take advantage of the upcoming Morocco 2018 Championship for African Nations (CHAN) to enhance their profile.
Akanni said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the players should use the tournament to showcase their talents.
“I think the players should just take that (championship) as an opportunity to showcase themselves; a lot of people think Nigeria is ready for the World Cup or preparing for the World Cup.
“CHAN should be an opportunity to see whether some of these players can also be part of that World Cup team.
“So the only thing I’d like to say to the players (is), whether or not they’ve adequate preparations, they should go out there and just showcase their talent.
“Hopefully some of them will have the opportunity to be in the World Cup team.
CHAN 2018 will kick-off on Jan.13 with the opening match featuring hosts, Morocco and Mauritania at the Stade Mohamed V in Casablanca, while the Super Eagles are expected to tackle the Amavubis of Rwanda in Tangier.
The tournament scheduled to end on Feb.4. is