2017 ITTF World Cup: Aruna Quadri Needs Quality Coach, Says Oladapo

Having watched Aruna Quadri played without a coach and was able to defeat Egypt’s Omar Assar with his coach beside him, Vice President of African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF), Olabanji Oladapo of Nigeria believes the ITTF Africa Cup champion needs a quality and world class coach to excel at this year’s ITTF World Cup.

Oladapo, who was in Agadir, Morocco when Quadri beat Assar 4-3 in the men’s singles final admitted that the country is yet to realise that players are not coming through due to lack of quality coaching.

“It is known fact that we lack quality coaching in Nigeria as we don’t have the coach that can handle the likes of Aruna Quadri.

“I watched the final between Quadri and Assar and it was technically balanced. I know that he needs highly technically sound coach to excel at the World championships.

“Nigeria don’t have a coach of that calibre and we need to get one if we need more of Quadri to come through our system as we have many Quadris rotting away in our system,” he said.

Oladapo, who is a board member of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) added: “As it is Aruna Quadri needs a world class to tutor him at the ITTF World Cup because his quality is beyond what any local coach can handle for now and this is why attention must be given seriously to coaching in Nigeria and that is really what is affecting our players.

“They (coaches) don’t have the wherewithal to impart knowledge on our players while there is need to engage a top class coach to cater for the national teams at all levels.”

Quadri and Egypt’s Dina Meshref will represent Africa at the ITTF World Cups in Belgium and Canada respectively later in the year.