Offiong Edem became the first athlete to earn Nigeria a medal at the 13th African Games after finishing in top three in the women’s singles event of the tournament taking place at the Accra International Conference Centre.
The Spain-based star played her best matches in the last 16 and quarterfinal when she defeated the Alhodaby twins – Marwa and Mariam to join the league of medalists in the women’s singles of the games.
Set up against defending champion Dina Meshref of Egypt in the semifinal, Edem caved in with 4-0 defeat to settle for a bronze medal just like she did at the 2019 edition in Rabat, Morocco.
“I am so happy that we were able to attend the last World Championships in Korea and this really helped my game a lot. I want to thank the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) for their support and I believe attending such a competition really helped me personally here in Ghana. The Egyptians are ahead of us because they attend more competitions than us and we hope we can get such support to return to the top of the game in Africa,” she said.