Tuesday 18 June 2013

Oshodi assures great future for t/tennis

The President of Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), Wahid Enitan Oshodi has revealed that the urge to lead the game in the country came from intensive pressure from stakeholders to come on board and give realistic push to the sport, based on his background and knowledge.
He said that he had dismissed the thought because he had enough on his hands as the Lagos State Commissioner for Sports.
“I guess that all the moves must have been based on my performance as the Chairman of Lagos State Table Tennis Association (LASTTA) in the past years, which they believed I could re-enacted to bring back the country as a force to reckon with at the continental and world stage,” he added.
He noted that the calibre of people in the board of the federation shall conquer as they intend to revolve the developmental programmes around the youths.  The board, he said will exploit the enormous talents in the country and turn the sport around. “The home truth we have unveiled is that we must go back to the basics in order to discover and truly catch the abundant talents much younger. This will enable the coaches to groom and monitor teams closely for speedy results.”  He said that in order to promptly accomplish that without much hassles, the services of first rate instructors must be engaged to harness the talents.
“There is a lot to be done to get the players that would be discovered ready. We must provide standard tables including other modern equipment that will facilitate the efforts of the younger ones from our schools. To achieve the desired impact, the NTTF leadership must liaise with the board members in the six geo-political zones, the state coaches that will do it right in the various schools,” he stressed.
He  explained that championships would be organised to keep the players in shape all year round as he  recalled that in the 1960’s till  late 1980’s table tennis was one of the popular and well sort after sports by fans in the country.
He promised to ensure that the game would be given a new lease of life by re-inventing it starting by putting together regular championships that will bring the required experience to the players.
“Yes our players need more exposure that will give them solid confidence to face any player in international meets. The need to bring them back to the playing arena has arisen more than ever before. The   board is determined to take the bull by the horn. We cannot afford to fail, rather we must justify the confidence reposed on us by those that invited on us to come on board to salvage and breathe life into the game,” he said.

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