Nigeria emerged as the overall champions of the 2023 ITTF African Para Championships, which ended on Saturday in Giza, Egypt. The Nigerians carted home 12 gold medals, dethroning Egypt as the new para table tennis champion in Africa.
Nigeria’s dominance was most evident in the singles event, where they won nine of the 14 tickets to the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. Egypt settled for five tickets in the singles events, but dominated the doubles and mixed doubles events with five gold medals, while Nigeria picked up two.
Nasiru Sule, the President of the Nigeria Para Table Tennis Federation, expressed his delight with the team’s performance.
He said, “I am so happy that we have more players making it to the Paralympic Games this year. This is the best we have 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.”
Sameh Eid-Saleh, the dethroned African champion in class four, described Nigeria’s performance as inspiring.
He said, “I think Nigeria came with a strong team of players and coaches, and I must commend them. I hope we can continue to raise the bar for para table tennis in Africa.”
