President of Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), Ishaku Tikon, has said that he is proud to be in charge of the sport that has continued to set standard for others to follow following the successful staging of the 2018 ITTF Challenge Seamaster Nigeria Open.
Tikon specifically lauded the Local Organising Committee (LOC) chaired by Wahid Enitan Oshodi for their ingenuity in raising the profile of the tournament.
“I am so proud to be the President of NTTF at this point in time because we have been able to show the world that we have the wherewithal to match any other international competition in the world with the quality of players and organization put together this year. So ITTF is not wrong to have upgraded our competition for 2019 because we are ready to improve every year and we have shown again that Nigeria is at par with the rest of the world when it comes to organizing a world class event,” he said.
The NTTF helmsman also thanked the Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode for his support and his presence at this year’s finals, adding that this goes to show that the governor is a lover of table tennis.
Also, Ganiyat Aruna, wife of Quadri Aruna has described the victory of her husband as a promise fulfilled.
A delighted Ganiyat was all over the place when her husband was battling it on the table against Frenchman Antoine Hachard in the final of the men’s singles.
It was clear from her reaction to every point won by the Frenchman that she was nervous and when her husband started dominating, she started leading the fans on various sonorous songs.
She added that the victory was honour to Nigeria as the long-awaited dream of having a Nigerian win the tournament became a reality.
