KAFFO CHARGES GOVT ON TABLE TENNIS DEVELOPMENT

By Olalekan Okusan Sport – Home
HAVING tasted fame through table tennis, former African champion, Bose Kaffo, has charged government at different levels to support the sport in order to harness more talents for the country.

Kaffo gave this charge during the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Level One coaching course cum players' training bankrolled by the Lagos State Government. She charged other governors to take a cue from Governor Babatunde Fashola in improving the standard of the game in Nigeria.

'I want to be seen as a good gospel of table tennis, not for anything else,' she said. 'We all have to make our ends meet somehow. If hard work is my own means of doing that, nobody can stop me and nobody can attempt, because it is for the glory of the sport and not other things.

'I am sacrificing my career and my life to make the sport great, so I don't expect people to stop that good thing. I have the interest of all states because I know that sports development is not just in one state, it could be in two states, it could be in three.

'If we focus on a particular state, it means you want us to be breeding players from a state and neglect others. Sports development programme will go across and that is what we want to do.

'And since the Lagos State Government has started, I am sure other states will embrace it and I pray that they do it well that even the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation will be happy that they are doing something.'

Kaffo was impressed with the turnout at the exercise, which had over 200 players and 30 coaches in attendance at the Mobolaji Sports Complex, Rowe Park, Yaba.

She thanked Fashola for approving and financing the course, which was certified by the International Table Tennis Federation, stressing that the course would afford the Lagos State Table Tennis Association the opportunity to win laurels if coaches were able to effectively impart what they had gained on their wards.