Former Coach of the defunct Yugoslavia national team, Papic Dejan, has admitted that Nigerian players have the potentials to be among the top table tennis players in the world.
Dejan, who is the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Instructor for the ITTF Hopes Week holding in Lagos, said he was marvelled with the quality of the most of the U-13 players taking part in the seven-day intensive training exercise at the Molade Okoya-Thomas.
24 cadet players drawn from Adamawa, Taraba, Kogi, Kwara, Delta, Abia, Ekiti, Lagos and Oyo States are at present taking part in the programme, which was started by the world table tennis ruling body (ITTF) five years ago with the goal to stimulate and motivate national associations to dig deep when it comes to talent identification and coach Education.
“I am impressed with the enormous talents possessed by Nigerian players especially the U-13 because not many countries have such quality of players. It is now left for the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) to organize regular training for them in order to nurture them to stardom. There must be conscious efforts by NTTF to organize on regular basis quality training that help to sharpen the skills of the players.
Having worked with Atanda Musa in Qatar, I am surprised with the quality of the players but my concern is for the country to invest more in these young players as well as getting the facilities for them to train,” the executive director of Ontario Table Tennis Association said.
Papic, who tutored the first ITTF World Hopes Team, which included the current Africa champion, Egypt’s Omar Assar to China Junior Open in 2009 added: “The enormous potentials of the players is a big advantage to Nigeria, which I know is not common all over the world. Aside the players, the coaches are eager and ready to learn, which I also see as a major advantage. But for these players to make it to the top, there must be efforts to support them, while the coaches must also be exposed to international competitions to acquire new knowledge in the game. Even if the coaches cannot go out there, organizing international tournament like the Lagos Classics will also help them to update their knowledge of the game.”
The ITTF-North America development officer, however, said: “For this new generation of Nigerian players to return the old glory of Nigeria, they must start well and be nurtured to maximize their potentials in the game. They must be educated early about the game. I love the potential of the players because they feel the game and learn very fast and these two qualities are not common all over the world. With normal training, I think these players can be among the best in the world. I want to say it is a long term planning.”
The head coach, Bello Nosiru, leads the coaching crew that is taking part in the training exercise.
