By Femi Atolagbe
Ondo State Teqball coach, Mark Oloruntola has commended his team ‘Odatiwa’ Ambassadors for their brilliant performance at the just concluded 2024 Teqball World Qualifiers held in Abia state.
He added that the players deserved the commendation for their character on and out of the court, saying despite their little or no time to train together, they still made the state proud .
Ondo State representatives at the world qualifiers won silver medal in women’s doubles and bronze medal in mixed doubles.
Four teqers included; the team captain , Ololade Akintunde, Aganmuyi Kehinde, Jenifer Ukam and a male player , Dotun Olafisoye had represented the state at the qualifiers.
Kehinde Aganmuyi and Jenifer Ukam won the silver medal in women’s doubles, while Ololade Akintunde and Dotun Olafisoye coasted home bronze medal in the mixed doubles.
Oloruntola in a chat with Sporting Hope, said the players tried their best by winning silver and bronze medals, adding that they played against rated Nigerian teqers and they were able to bring something home with short period of preparation.
He said: “Most of the games we played to the quarter finals are against Nigerian number one and two, the third placed we played in the mixed doubles was against the ranking Nigerian teqers.
“We defeated them in the group stage and we still beat them to bronze medal in the third placed game and that showed how good our players are”
“Our major challenges are that we don’t have time to train together, if we could arrange our selves very well with support from government, private sectors in the state, these players will places.”
“The only male player in our team, Dotun Olafisoye who is playing in his debut competition was the toast of both organisers and spectators.
He defeated three regular players before he crashed out to Nigeria number one in quarter finals”.
“We are improving in the game, all we need now is to be playing together, so that there will be understanding between the players especially in doubles.”
“I’m sure with good timetable for training, we will get better in future competitions,” he said.