Yesterday, China’s Zhou Kai and Korea’s Shin Yubin won the men’s and women’s singles titles at the World Table Tennis Contender Championship at Lagos’ Teslim Balogun Stadium indoor sports hall.
Kai beat Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov 4-1 to claim the men’s singles championship, while Yubin defeated China’s Li Yake to win the women’s.
Yubin, who won the women’s doubles championship with fellow Korean Jeon Jihee, praised the WTT Contender Championship for offering table tennis talents a chance to improve and earn ranking points.
Kai stated he beat his German opponent through hard effort and commitment.
“It was challenging. My German opponent played well, but my preparations showed.
“I will keep trying to win additional world championships, and I appreciate the ITTF for organising this event,” he stated.
Ishaku Tikon, president of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), pledged to help Nigerian players qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
“The WTT Contender Championship’s success delights the NTTF,” he remarked. We want to train Nigerian players for the WTT Championship in Tunisia.”
“The NTTF is also training more grassroots players. The WTT Contender Championship in Lagos gave more Nigerian players the exposure and experience they needed to compete against the world’s best in future championships. He remarked, “We will keep building new platforms for gamers to thrive.”
The president apologised for the brief light outage during the women’s singles finals, calling it a technical issue that was quickly fixed.
