By Femi Atolagbe

The Table Tennis Association of Thailand has invited Ondo State born table tennis player, Mati Taiwo to represent Nigeria in the Under 15 and under 18 training camp and SET Thailand Junior cadet Open .

The training camp will hold between 6th -13th May, 2019 ,while the SET Thailand Junior will come up on 15th to 19th May in Bangkok, Thailand.

According to Coach Omoniyi Adedotun, Mati Taiwo was invited to Thailand based on his brilliant performance in African Junior championship in Ghana.

The Ghana competition was a qualifier for Africa, World Junior Championship and World cadet championship. He said only one player will qualify for each country, while four will represent Africa .

Coach Dotun added that 16 players were initially invited by ITTF for the competition in Thailand, but after Mati Taiwo’s sterling performance in Ghana his name was later included ,that is why the invitation came a little beat late.

He said, Taiwo had represented Nigeria in 2017 in Egypt and won the under 15 single and Hope single boys,saying he is the under 15 Champion and number two in under 18 in Africa.

The Nigeria national under 15 coach therefore solicited the support of the state government ,which he said , the current government has been doing in the past,saying, the Akeredolu led administration had helped them to renovate the Table tennis court which he said has aided their performances in every championship .

But as Oliver Twist ,we want more financially from the government to help us fast track the visa and other logistics for the championship.

He added that before they can embark on the Thailand championship they will need surety, clearance from Police and NDLEA which has not been easy, adding that Nigeria Table Tennis Federation had already cater for the ticket.

He noted that ondo state is blessed with talented players, like Ojo Onaolapo, who is now in USA under the ITTF scholarship, Boboye in Portugal, Amadi Omeh that won 2015 world Junior cadet Championship in Cairo, all these boys are our players that we groom from the grassroot to the international level.

” We never buy already made players ,we produced them from the grassroot to the international level.

He thanked the state government for their support so far, and therefore solicited timely and adequate release of fund for championships.