A seven-man Team Nigeria comprising six players and a coach is scheduled to jet out to South Africa on Saturday for the 2016 ITF/CAT African Junior Championships which holds from March 9th -18th.
The team concluded a 20-day training camp in Abuja on Friday in preparation for the tournament holding in Pretoria, South Africa.
The players that will be competing for honours on behalf of Nigeria at the tournament which will feature about 160 players from over 30 African countries are Christopher Bulus, Christopher Itodo (boys 16&under), Gabriel Friday, Michael Osewa (boys 14&under), Angel McLeod (girls 16&under) and Marylove Edwards (girls 14&under). Edwards, 11, made her international debut at the qualifiers in Abuja where she won silver medal in the singles and gold medal in the doubles.
The six players have been perfecting their acts at the National Tennis Centre, Abuja under the supervision of coach Mohammed Ubale.
They will be joining their compatriots Oyinlomo Barakat Quadri andAdetayo Adetunji who are already in Pretoria. Quadri, who is on a scholarship to the ITF High Performance Centre in Casabalanca, Morocco arrived with the ITF team on Wednesday while Adetunji, who is based in Johannesburg, has already made the 56.3km journey to the venue. They will be competing in the girls 14&uder and 16&under respectively.
Ubale said the team changed its plan to travel next week Monday in order to acclimatize due to the high altitude of the venue.
“All things being equal, we will be opening another camp in Pretoria immediately on our arrival as the Nigeria Tennis Federation has already worked that out weeks before now. We don’t want to take chances because the altitude in Pretoria is much different to what we are used to here. It’s the same reason that the ITF team sets up a camp which will be for like five days so that they can master the chance in atmosphere,” Ubale stated.
Nigeria are the champions of the regional qualifiers held in Abuja in January and will be leading 10 other countries from the West and Central African region to the championship which will hold at the University of Pretoria, Tuks.
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