All is now set for the grand finale of this year’s Lagos State Table Tennis Association (LSTTA) organized Junior Championships tagged Elicris Table Tennis Cup as 16 junior and cadet players battle for the mouth-watering prize money at stake at the end-of-the-year annual tournament.
According to the organizers, the Elicris Table Tennis Competition is a developmental program organized to improve junior athletes, discover talents, and promote grassroots sports development.
The preliminary round was hosted at the Indoor Sports Hall of the National Table Tennis Federation Hall Surulere, as 84 participants were engaged in a fierce yet healthy competition among the junior and cadet players from various clubs in Lagos State.
The preliminaries commenced on December 14 and it had in attendance 24 junior boys, 16 junior girls, 32 cadet boys, and 12 cadet girls.
Eight participants have qualified from each event category to the semi-finals scheduled for Sunday, December 24 at the Elicris Place in Ikeja Lagos.
According to the Chairman of LSTTA, Tunji Lawal, the initiative had athletes train rigorously and compete in healthy rivalry for supremacy. “It will indeed aid improved performance and enable LSTTA to have more athletes to represent the state at the next National Youth Games. We are very grateful to the sponsors for keeping faith with the staging of this year’s edition and we hope the tournament can be sustained to help us to continue to unearth talents for the state and Nigeria as a nation,” Lawal said.
For the grand finale, the cadet boys title will be competed for by Abdulsalam Lateef, Issa Sultan, Adebayo Habeeb, and Adegoke Wariz, while Faiza Musbau, Adeyemi Rokibat, Aishat Adebayo and Adegbola Testimony will jostle for the battle for the coveted trophy in the cadet girls.
Defending champion in the boys’ junior Tobi Adebakin made it to the last four and he will battle against Joseph Emmanu,el, Adeoye Hussein, and Ogunshakin Okiki. The battle for supremacy in the junior girls has Joy Emmanuel, Aminat Aregbesola, Summer Balik Faiza Musbau, Adeyemi Rokibat, Aishat Adebayo and Adegbola Testimony will jostle for the battle for the coveted trophy in the cadet girls, and Aishat Rabiu.
