The Ondo State men’s double Table Tennis team on Tuesday won a gold medal at the National Sports Festival (NSF) in Asaba, Delta State.

The duo of Amadi Umeh and Joshua Oladiran defeated their counterparts from Rivers State, Jide Ogidiolu and Kazeem Makanjuola, to clinch the gold medal for the event.

The duo from Ondo State defeated their counterparts 3-0 to win the gold medal, while Rivers State settled for silver.

Also, Wale Fagbamila from Ondo State lost 2-3 to his counterpart from Delta to settle for a silver medal in the men’s single event of the game.

Speaking after the match, Rivers Table Tennis Coach, Sarafa Adeleke, said his players lost due to fatigue.

Adeleke said that one of his players competed in about five games on Monday alone and there was no time for recovery as all Table Tennis events must end on Monday.

“One of my players played from the first round to the fifth round today alone before now playing the final and he must be tired. Table tennis is a game of chance, we all came to win,” he said.

Also speaking, Ondo State Table Tennis Association Head Coach, Dotun Omoniyi, said he was happy to maintain his record of winning gold in all the festivals he had attended.

Omoniyi said he lost the men’s team final to Delta and had to settle for silver, due to hard luck, but had to psyche his players that.

“The performance is very okay for me, the last festival we won two gold and one bronze medal. One of our key players is in Tunisia, that is Mati Taiwo, but I told them that all of you are important and we must win medals,” he said.

Omoniyi re-echoed the belief of his counterpart from Rivers about the number of matches played per day, saying, ”in a day you can’t play more than three games in a row.

“But you see the first day we came here, I counted the number of games an individual played, we played more than nine or 10 matches which is too much,” he said.

Omoniyi said he was happy for the players and Ondo State in general for the performance of the Table Tennis team.

In Table Tennis, Team Ondo had one gold, two silver, and three bronze medals totaling six medals.

(NAN)