Nigeria's hands will be full in the table tennis event of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, as the Segun Toriola-led men's team has been drawn in Group D alongside Russia and Japan.
In the draw made available to local media by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), Nigeria will contend with Japan, Russia, Hong Kong of China, Chinese Taipei, Sweden and Brazil to vie for the berth of the next stage. Hong Kong of China, Japan, Chinese Taipei are seeded fourth, sixth and seventh respectively. All teams in the group are seeded above Nigeria.
It was equally not an easy draw for the Nigerian women, with the team set in same group with Singapore, the Netherlands, Austria, the United States, Croatia and the Dominican Republic.
In their seeding, Nigeria is rated 16 among the 16 teams taking part in the team event. Singapore is second while Netherlands is seventh, Austria eighth, United States ninth, Croatia 10th and Dominican Republic 15th.
The Nigerian men will begin their campaign against Brazil while the women's team will face Dominican Republic in the opener.
According to the ITTF, the winning teams in each group shall play a knockout semifinal for gold and silver medals. The second placed teams of each group and semifinal contest losers will play off for bronze medal.
The team event is featuring in the Olympic Games for the first time since the sport was first introduced into the Olympic Games in 1988.Nigeria's victory quest will be spearheaded by Toriola and Bose Kaffo, who will lead the women's team while others in the men's team are Monday Merotohun and Kazeem Nosiru. The duo of Germany-based Funke Oshonaike and Cecilia Out will play in the women's event.
(Xinhua News Agency August 1, 2008)