The Nigerian table tennis squad on Monday ended the dominance of Egypt in table tennis male and female categories in the African continent at the 12th African Games. Nigeria won gold medals in the women categories while Algeria won gold in the men category.
National Daily gathered that the rivalry between Nigeria and Egypt came to fore in the semifinal of the women’s doubles at the 12th African Games with the West African team putting an end to the dominance of North African country in the tennis event.
Nigeria beat Egypt in the semi final to advance to the final.
Nigerian pair of Edem Offiong and Cecilia Akpan stopped the Egyptian duo of Dina Meshref and Yousra Helmy from berthing in the final with 3-2 (12-10, 11-9, 7-11, 7-11, 11-8) win to set up an all Nigerian affairs in the final.
A comeback from Olufunke Oshonaike and Fatimo Bello against Algeria’s Lynda Loghraibi and Katia Kessaci in the second semi final landed Nigeria in the second female final.
Oshonaike and Bello had to recover from 1-7 in the fourth game as they were down 2-1 (9-11, 11-8, 6-11) in major. They recovered to win the game with 10 points, ending 11-9 to put the match at par. In the deciding match, the Nigerian ladies led from the start to end the final match at 11-5 to make it an all Nigerian affairs in the final.
National Daily gathered that in the final involving the duo of Offiong and Akpan against the pair of Oshonaike and Bello, Offiong and Akpan carried the day, winning the title they surrendered to Egypt in 2015 with a 3-2 (11-7, 11-6, 7-11, 2-11, 13-11).
In the men’s doubles final involving Egypt’s Mohamed El-Beiali and Ahmed Saleh against Algeria’s Sami Kherouf and Sofiane Boudjadja, it was the Algerians that made history to win their first ever gold medal at the African Games.
To humble the Egyptians in the final, Kherouf and Boudjadja defeated Saleh and El-Beiali 3-2 (11-13, 7-11, 11-2, 6-11, 8-11) to win the first event gold medal at the African Games.
An elated Kherouf had said: “It was an unbelievable thing to happen in Algeria because we have never won gold medal in table tennis of the African Games. It was a good feeling and pleasure for us to become the first set of players to achieve this feat.”