Teenage sensation Matthew Kuti claimed two national titles in the span of 24 hours as the Lagos state national junior champion won the maiden Daniel Ford Youth Championships as well as the one-day Renewed Hope Top 20 Invitational Challenge held at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim Balogun Stadium.
Kuti, who was former African cadet champion, showed class at the 1st Daniel Ford Tournament after coming from 2-0 down in the U-19 boys final to beat Abdulbasit Abdulfatai of Kwara 4-2 to the admiration of special guest, Nwankwo Kanu.
Less than 24 hours after claiming the Daniel Ford gong, Kuti tested his might against some of the senior players in the country at the 2nd Renewed Hope Challenge and hid fine form continued aa he repeated much more than what he did at the Daniel Ford tournament against Abdulfatai with a convincing 3-0 win in the semi-final of the men’s singles while he turned the hand of the clock in the final against Wale Fagbamila of Ondo State with another out-of-this world performance to emerge as the best male player in the country.
Not minding the age and experience of his opponent, Kuti showed that youthfulness combined with skills can humble age-long experience with a 3-1 (11-4, 113-11, 6-11, 11-9) win to emerge as the best home-based table tennis player in the country.
An elated Kuti described his win as what he needed after missing the 2023 World Youth Championships held in Slovenia. “I am happy with my performance, and this was what I wanted to achieve at the WYC unfortunately, we could not make the trip and I just hope we will have such an opportunity in near future,” he said.
Like Kuti, Sukurat Aiyelabegan wanted to do the doubles, but her efforts were thwarted in the Renewed Hope final by Hope Uduoka in the women’s singles final.
Aiyelabegan had won the Daniel Ford tournament with ease, but she could not repeat the performance at the Renewed Hope final as she was beaten 3-1 (11-9, 8-11, 5-11, 9-11) by the West African University champion.
For the Vice President of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), Adesoji Tayo, the performance of the players was a pointer to the fact that Nigeria is blessed with talented athletes who can hold sway against their foreign counterparts in major championships.