African Video games medallists, Matthew Kuti and Hope Udoaka, confirmed class in opposition to skilled gamers to emerge as the brand new West African champions on the 2024 ITTF West Africa Regional Championships in Lome, Togo.
The Nigeria nationwide champions have been among the many 32 males and 29 girls from Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal, and host Togo who participated within the championship
They competed in 4 occasions (group and singles for women and men).
The three-day event was organised to pick groups that may characterize the area at this 12 months’s African Championships, happening in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Regardless of not taking part in to his greatest within the group occasion, which allowed Togo to dethrone Nigeria because the regional champions, Kuti ensured he was flawless within the singles occasion.
He took down some established gamers, together with the previous regional champion, Oba Oba Kizito of Cote d’Ivoire.
Beginning his marketing campaign from the group the place he dropped a sport in opposition to Benin Republic’s Kossi Akakpo, Kuti breezed into the knockout spherical to make up for the loss within the group occasion.
From the spherical of 16, Kuti took down Togo’s nationwide champion, Kokou Fanny, 3-0, to advance to the quarter-final.
Within the quarterfinals, he edged out his compatriot, Matthew Fabunmi, 4-2, to arrange a semi-final conflict in opposition to the participant that defeated him within the group occasion, Mawussi Agbetoglo of Togo.
Kuti humbled the Togolese 4-2 to achieve the ultimate, the place he needed to face the previous champion, Oba Oba Kizito of Cote d’Ivoire.
And like the nice champion he’s, Kuti mesmerised Kizito with a 4-1 bashing to be topped the brand new regional champion.
The win ensured Nigeria held on to the title, which was received by Taiwo Mati in 2023.
Udoaka held sway within the girls’s singles, beating compatriot Ajoke Ojomu 4-0 to assert the title.
Within the group occasion, the Nigerian women, led by nationwide champion Hope Udoaka, dominated with out dropping a sport and beat Ghana 3-0 within the ultimate to retain the title.
However the host group gave the followers one thing to cheer for with a 3-2 win over Nigeria to emerge because the regional powerhouse within the males’s group occasion.
In the meantime, Madagascar reaffirmed its dominance of the East African area after claiming three of the 4 occasions at stake on the ITTF East Africa Regional Championships held in Kampala, Uganda.
Forty-one males and 29 girls from Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and host Uganda converged on Kampala to compete in 4 occasions (group and singles for women and men). Madagascar, led by Antoine Razafinarivo, emerged because the champions.
Within the group occasion, the host Uganda have been at their greatest within the girls’s classes, with the trio of Jemimah Nakawala, Judith Nangonzi, and Shanitah Namaala defeating their Kenyan counterparts to emerge as champions.
Within the males’s group occasion, Madagascar repeated their 2023 feat in Djibouti with a 3-0 bashing of Uganda within the ultimate.
They continued their reign within the singles because the duo of Razafinarivo and Hanitra Raharimanana claimed the titles forward of their Ugandan counterparts.
Uganda’s Nangonzi needed to repeat what they achieved within the girls’s group with enormous residence assist, however her efforts have been thwarted by Raharimanana, who claimed a 4-1 (September 11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-5, 12-10) to elevate the trophy.
Within the tension-soaked males’s singles ultimate, Madagascan Razafinarivo was emphatic in his 4-1 (14-12, 11-5, 11-2, 12-10, 14-12) to finish the event on a excessive observe for the visiting Madagascan group.
NAN
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