In the last decade, Wahid Oshodi has been supporting table tennis, and it was during his tenure as chairman of Lagos State Table Tennis Association (LSTTA) that many players emerge. That same unflinching backing for the game was what motivated him to join the Nigerian team to the just concluded World Team Championship in Dortmund, Germany. The Lagos State Commissioner for Youth, Sports and Social Development told OLALEKAN OKUSAN in Dortmund that the team to the Germany tourney did fairly well considering the available resources but noted that efforts must be geared towards improving the coaches as well as focusing on youth development. More so, he insisted that, for budding players to reach their heights of glory, they needed to be recognised by the country they serve.WHAT is your assessment of Team Nigeria in Dortmund'Our team has done fairly well in the championship considering the resources we have put into it. The team obviously has not been doing well because of lack of exposure to big tournaments. You can see that our players have not been playing at the same level with most of the players that took part in the championship. But you have to give them credit because they did their best in the tournament.Generally, the problem is now for us to start building a new team with a new generation of players. However, we are lucky to have few young players in the national team at present and we must give credit to the coaches for exposing them early. For the players, it is not enough to attend one world championship or African championship once in a year, they must be exposed to pro tours and international competitions regularly.What is the way out of the dwindling fortunes of the sport'I think what the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation needs to focus on now is getting our coaches exposed to the new tricks and techniques based on what we have seen in Dortmund because the game is faster now than what we are used to in Nigeria. I think the only way is to get foreign coaching for our coaches in order to acquaint them with the latest in the game. I believe we need a foreign technical coach that will help to improve the knowledge of our coaches as well as help to develop the game from the grassroots.It is true that coaching is one of the problems of the sport because most of our coaches are not current. But the truth is that we have not given them the opportunity to update themselves. Most of them are civil servants and it will be too expensive for them to attend some of these courses outside the country. And as a federation, we must bring these courses to them in Nigeria.Also, with the exit of former national coach, Babatunde Obisanya, a gap has been created prior to the appointment of Nosiru Bello. The gap created was that there was nobody to monitor the players all over the country and this lack of replacement for Obisanya has really shown.How did you see African teams' performance'I think most of the African teams are going through the same thing Nigeria is facing right now, except Egypt, which has began to benefit from its youth development programme, having started some years back. Most of its players have graduated from cadet to the senior level. The current African champion, Omar Assar - who is a teenager, is still a junior player and is an integral part of the Egyptian national team. Aside the programme it has in place, most of its players have been exposed to top class championship all over the globe and that is why it is a force to reckon with at junior level globally now.Country like Congo Brazzaville has not been impressive because it has not been improving, rather, it relies on importing players from China, Nigeria and other countries and this, I believe, will not help the country to improve its own players but rather spend more money on other players. I think Nigeria will have a hard time overhauling the Egyptian in Africa unless we do something urgently to address this.How will you describe the contribution of veterans like Segun Toriola and Funke Oshonaike'Toriola and Oshonaike have shown exceptional leadership with the national teams. Their dedication and discipline to the national team cannot be overemphasised, even without any motivation the two players have exhibited good example. Their commitment and dedication to national duty have been encouraging, and even under terrible conditions, they hardly complain. Most times, they take part in trials flying from their Europe base to play under terrible atmosphere.Toriola, Oshonaike, Monday Merotohun and Bose Kaffo have given all their best to the nation and winning a lot of laurels than many athletes in Nigeria and it is discouraging that their efforts have not been recognised.
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