…..Nigeria plays for pride against Czech Republic
From all the African teams competing at the ongoing ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships, Egypt’s ladies are the best performing team having won two out of the three matches played so far and their last group match will be against Iran on Tuesday, February 20.
After beating Czech Republic 3-0, the Dina Meshref-inspired side fell 3-0 to France while on Monday, February 19, they overwhelmed Ukraine 3-1 to be in line for a place in the knockout round of the tournament.
But their men’s team were not so lucky as they had lost two of their group matches against Romania and Portugal while they were still hopeful of making it to the knockout stage with matches against Thailand and Iran.
A depleted Nigeria’s men’s team will be playing for pride when they face Czech Republic on Tuesday, February 20 having lost to Japan, Chinese Taipei and Madagascar in the absence of their captain Quadri Aruna who took ill few days to the commencement of the championships.
They also suffered an unexpected defeat in the hand of Madagascar and this automatically ruled them out of contention for the second round of the competition.
Like their male counterpart, Nigeria’s women’s team have tasted defeat in all their matches losing to Mexico, Germany, Slovakia while their last group match on Tuesday, February 20 is against Poland.
Algeria men and women teams were without a win in all their matches as well as South Africa who are yet to record a win in their group matches.
