Akanbi, Odusanya Dominate LSTTA Championships

Rilwan Akanbi returned to the pinnacle of the men’s singles after claiming the title at the Lagos State Table Tennis Association (LSTTA) Closed Championships just as Bose Odusanya continued her dominance in the women’s singles.

The two-day tournament sponsored by LSTTA Chairman Tunji Lawal and a member of LSTTA board, Remi Aina had top players competing in the senior, junior and cadet events with mouth-watering prize money shared by the outstanding players.

With the grand finale hosted at the Lagos Country Club in Ikeja, the fans were treated to exciting matches with Akanbi, a former Lagos Champion beating junior champion Muiz Adegoke to emerge as champion.

It was Akanbi that edged out former champion David Fayele in the semifinal with 3-0 (11-4, 11-6, 12-10) to set up a final clash against Adegoke who had also bundled out Augustine Emmanuel in a closed encounter that ended 3-2 (11-8, 5-11, 11-7, 6-11, 11-9).

The final match was like a walkover for Akanbi who taught his junior counterpart some lessons in the final with a convincing 3-0 (11-1, 11-9, 11-5) to be crowned the new Lagos champion.

Odusanya why she would remain on top in Lagos as she waltzed past Kehinde Oyeniyi 3-0 (11-3, 11-7, 11-8) to be unbeaten in all competitions.

Adegoke and Joy Emmanuel are champions in the junior division while Matthew Kuti and Taiwo Akanbi emerged as cadet champions.

For LSTTA Chairman, Tunji Lawal, the tournament was aimed at engaging the players as well as rate them based on their performance. “We are excited that the players have shown that they are ready for any challenge with their performance at the tournament. It also showed that there is no permanent champion in Lagos and this for us has again shown that we need to continue to stage tournaments to see the consistency of the players so that we can rank them according to their performance. We hope we can continue to organize this kind of tournament monthly to keep the players busy as well as help to rank them,” he said.