Offiong Edem in action.
Diana Okon-Effiong, Calabar
National Table Tennis coach, Richard Edem, has assured on need to groom upcoming and talented table tennis players to enrich the pool of players which abound in Nigeria.
Edem, a coach with Cross River Sports Commission, stated this in an interview with our correspondent in Calabar. The coach led Team Cross River to an impressive showing at the just-ended Lagos Table Tennis Classics (LTTC).
The team won 4 Gold; 1 Silver; and 2 Bronze medals at the LTTC which held at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Indoor Sports Hall,Teslim Balogun Stadium.
“We are working on a lot of upcoming players to replace the senior ones at the appropriate time, they are equally good”, Edem said.
He also said that the State Government had given lots of motivation for the team to excel in competitions including the LTTC where it picked the female singles Gold.
“Winning the females singles and the overall ranking of my team at the LTTC did not come as surprise to me. They played in several national and international competitions. When we went to Lagos for the classics I was confident of victory because we really worked hard and trained seriously for the competition. It was not also a surprise when Offiong Edem and Cecilia Otu-Akpan met in the finals. We are now working towards winning all the available Gold medals in Table Tennis in the 2014 national sports festival to be hosted by Cross River
“I went to LTTC with 17 players and two officials; we were sponsored by the state government. Our camp was very close to the stadium. A lot of countries participated at the LTTC – Italy, Egypt, Congolese and so many countries from Africa and Europe. It was world class competition and my team have played in the finals in more than 15 competitions in Nigeria and Africa.
“I trained them to be hardworking and strong. My players are so strong that once there are not in the same path on the chart it is believed that there are quite likely to meet in the final. That is what happened at the LTTC. Because of my achievements and the players I coach, I have represented Nigeria in international competitions including the Olympics, commonwealth and All African Games since 1999”, he said.
Edem said that the doubles pair of Offiong Edem and Cecilia Otu-Akpan had been the African champions in the last 12 years. They won it in CoJa Games, in Algeria, Mozambique and so on.
“So long as my players are participating in those competitions and because I know their psychology, I normally attend with them.”
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