Top seeds table tennis players; Muiz Adegoke and Bose Odusanya, both defending champions in both the men’s and women’s singles categories respectively, are set to retain their titles at the final of the 55th Molade Okoya-Thomas Table Tennis Cup.
The finals will take place on Wednesday December 20 inside the indoor sports hall at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos.
The road to the final boasts of the competitiveness of the knockout stages as Adegoke dashed the hopes of the 2021 champion- Rilwan Akanbi after he won 4-1 in a game of 5 rounds(11-7, 8-11, 12-10, 11-7 and 11-7) to zoom to the final.
For the men’s singles final, Adegoke will face Augustine Emmanue who ousted David Fayele in a keenly contested match which ended 4-3 (11-6, 11-13, 11-8, 2-11, 12-10, 4-11, 11-3) in the semi-final.
The women’s singles final will witness the clash between the 2022 edition finalists; Abosede Odusanya versus Anuoluwapo Anjuwon.
The Referee of the tournament, John Peters lauded the family of the late Okoya-Thomas for their steadfastness in staging the tournament without stopping years after the demise of the founder of the competition.
“I am happy that the family has remained committed to the tournament and I hope we will play more of it in future. This year’s tournament has really shown that we have the players that can take over from the likes of Quadri Aruna and Olajide Omotayo because they are playing modern table tennis with their style of play and I hope our coaches are also hunting for talents that they can nurture to stardom,” Peters said.
The finals will be chaired by the Chief Operating Officer of the African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF) Kweku Tandoh while the Executive Vice President of ITTF, Wahid Oshodi will be among the dignitaries that will grace the finals.