Offiong Edem triumphed in the female event
Portugal based, Seun Ajetunmobi of the National Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), has won the men's singles title of the 4th edition of the Reach Out Nigeria (RON) Table Tennis Championship in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
In a keenly contested match held at the auditorium of the Christ Embassy Church , Ajetunmobi defeated former junior champion Ojo Onaolapo of Ondo State 11-9,8-11,9-11,11-8,7-11,11-9,13-11(4-3).
He won the star prize of N400,000 while Ojo pocketed N200,000. Also, Sola Oyetayo of NSCDC who lost in the semi final to Ajetunmobi and Kazeem Makanjuola of NSCDC who lost to Ojo were the joint third place winners.
In the women's singles, current All Africa Games gold medallist, Offiong Edem of Cross River State beat former junior champion, Fatima Kazeem of the Nigeria Police 11-9,8-11,11-8,6-11,11-6(4-2). Offiong won the star prize money of N200,000 while Fatima got a consolatory N100,000 for her effort.
Halimat Hussain of NSCDC who lost to Offiong in the semi final and Janet Friday who lost to Fatima were the joint third place winners and shared N50,000 prize money. In the men's doubles, the pair of D. Ayelumo/ Y. Olasoji beat S. Ajetunmobi /Kayode Adedeji to pick the prize at stake while the joint third place winners were O. Onaolapo/W. Fagbamila.
In the women's doubles the pair of O. Edem /C. Otu beat H. Hussain /J. Friday. The joint third were A. Ofonime/ Y. Thompson and F. Bello/F. Kazeem.
In the senior mixed doubles K. Makanjuola /O. Edem beat G. Anthony/J Friday. The joint third place winners were K. Adedeji/H. Hussain and S. Ajetunmobi/C. Otu.
Meanwhile, the President of Nigeria Table Tennis Federation Hon. Kayode Abdulwahab-Omotose and his scrabble counterpart, Mr Toki Aka, have appealed to the three tiers of government and corporate bodies to pay attention to other sports and stop giving undue favour to football.
Speaking at different fora in Uyo they both lamented that this ugly trend has negatively affected the development of other sports in the country.
The NTTF boss who spoke at the grand finale of the Reach Out Nigeria (RON) table tennis championship sponsored by the Christ Embassy Church(CEC) felt pained that while football receives undue attention and continuous sponsorship to all big and inconsequential tournaments across the world , other sports struggle to even attend mandatory championships.
The former Majority Leader of Kwara House of Assembly called on the legislature at the three levels of government to redirect this ugly trend to avert the calamity that befell Nigeria at the last Olympics.
"Even when the male and female football teams play draw they receive heavy allowances which in itself alone can carry the other sports to the promised land while we don't get five per cent of what they get. Our team has won many laurels in Africa and across the world including the Intercontinental Cup in 2010, but our players were not given even handshakes.
“But the same government gave out N1m to each member of the female football team that came a distant fourth at the recent U-20 Championship in Japan