Nigeria emerged the overall champions of the 2023 ITTF African Para Championships which ended Saturday in Giza, Egypt.
Nigeria carted home 12 gold medals to dethrone Egypt as the new para table tennis champion in Africa.
The Nigerians asserted themselves as the new heavyweights in the continent’s para table tennis by dominating the singles event to pick up most of the tickets to the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
From the 14 tickets to the Paralympic Games, Nigeria picked nine while Egypt settled for five in the singles events, but the host team dominated the doubles and mixed doubles events with five gold medals while Nigeria picked two.
The three-day tournament has host – Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Mauritius, Cameroon, South Africa, Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire competing in the singles, doubles and mixed doubles events with Nigeria carting home 11 gold medals to dethrone Egypt as the new para table tennis champion in Africa.
Dethroned African champion in class four, Sameh Eid-Saleh described the performance of Nigeria as inspiring as the team put up a good show against them.
Eid-Saleh said, “I think Nigeria came with a strong team of players and coaches and I must commend them and I hope we can continue to raise the bar for para table tennis in Africa,” the five-time Paralympian said.
According to Nasiru Sule, the feat achieved by Nigeria exceeded previous outings especially with the large number of qualified players for the Paralympic Games.
The Atlanta 96 Paralympics bronze medalist said. “I am so happy that we have more players making it to the Paralympic Games this year and this is the best we had ever achieved because our largest number was at Sydney 2000 when we had seven players making it to the games but this time we have nine which I believe is an improvement from us as a nation. Most of the players that also qualified will also be making their debut at the games next year. I must also commend Egypt for the smooth running and hospitality provided during the championships.”
