Africa Games: Team Nigeria dispatches Egypt to set up all Nigeria final

Nigeria halted the dominance of Egypt in table tennis to win the first gold medal in the event at the 12th African Games holding in Rabat, Morocco.

It was in the women’s doubles event that Nigerian pair of Edem Offiong and Cecilia Akpan caused an upset in the semifinal against defending champion, Egypt’s Dina Meshref and Yousra Helmy to edge out the North African from the gold medal battle.

A spirited comeback from Olufunke Oshonaike and Fatimo Bello against Algeria’s Lynda Loghraibi and Katia Kessaci also gave Nigerian to the final place in the second semifinal match.

Having led the encounter at 2-0 (12-10, 11-9), Meshref and Helmy fought back to level at 2-2 (9-11, 7-11). But the never-say-die spirit of the Nigerians came to fore as Offiong and Akpan fought till the end to win the deciding match at 11-8.

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 but they held their breath to win 10 points and ended the match 11-9.

Ant the deciding match was in their favour as they led from the start to finish to end the final match at 11-5 to set up a Nigerian affair in the final.

The battle for gold medal in the women’s doubles will be between the pair of Offiong and Akpan and the duo of Oshonaike and Bello.

It was not the same story in the men’s doubles after Tunisian bundled out Aruna Quadri and Bode Abiodun in the quarterfinal, Segun Toriola, and Olajide Omotayo were not lucky in their semifinal tie against Algeria’s Sami Kherouf and Sofiane Boudjadja. the Algerian defeated them in a straight-set of 11-6, 11-7, 12-10 for the Nigerians to settle for the bronze medal.