Table Tennis: Nigeria starts on winning note in Africa Championships

Nigeria recorded victory on Day One at the ongoing ITTF African Junior and Cadet Championships in Accra, Ghana.

The championship that witnessed 19 teams but only two countries in the boys and girls events will berth in the finals of the 2019 ITTF World Junior Championship that would take place in Thailand next December.

Nigeria recorded victory in their maiden matches after beating Tunisia and Ghana 3-1 and 3-0 respectively.

In other matches, Egypt beat Sierra Leone and South Africa 3-0. Host country Ghana also fell 3-0 to Nigeria.

Tunisia was unlucky to have lost to Nigeria 1-3. Nevertheless, the Tunisians are still in contention for places in the last four as they recovered from the 1-3 loss to Nigeria to beat Congo DRC 3-1, putting themselves in vantage position to qualify for the knockout stage.

In today’s match-up, South Africa will take on Sierra Leone; Tunisia battles Ghana, Nigeria slugs it out with Congo DRC and Libya will clash with Togo in the boys’ event.

On the evidence of Day 1 combats, the individual events promise to be exciting as players and teams appear to be in top form.

Already, fans are looking forward to epic battles, with some ready to wager on the proposition that other countries will pose a serious challenge to Egypt’s dominance in the continental junior competitions.