THE rapturous applause that attended his exit from the
Table Tennis event of the Rio Olympics could have been mistaken for a
victorious ovation. Nigeria’s legendary
table tennis icon Segun Toriola exited the Rio Games but held his head high the
way only legends do.
His conqueror, Japan’s Niwa Koki who beat Segun in the
men’s singles event of table tennis joined in acknowledging the iconic star who
raised his hands to return the sporadic applause.
Not long after his defeat, Toriola who made history by
joining the elite stars’ club of players to have attended 7 Olympics turned out
to be the beautiful bride who is sought after by many countries to sign as
their coach.
“Countries are queuing to see who will out-bid each other
to land Toriola as coach’’, a very dependable source said.
Interestingly, too, Nigeria is also desirous of landing
the history maker as their coach.
President of Nigeria Table Tennis Federation, Enitan Oshodi said they’ve always been
interested and would want to concretise the deal, noting however that Toriola
was still much fit to continue with his club functions.
“He’ll be an asset and has always been to our younger
athletes. We’ll see how to make it even if it means living abroad and coaching
from there as it were.
“The young man deserves all the accolades he gets. That
is the result of discipline and hardwork. And honestly, they are the things
lacking in our youth players. They are in a hurry to ride expensive cars without
working for it”, Oshodi bemoaned.
Just as the International Table Tennis Federation plan to
honour his historic 7th Olympic appearance, there are feelers that officials of
Team Nigeria are also planning to roll out the red carpet to this eminent Nigerian
Ping Ponger.
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