The lawyers’ Table Tennis Finals also known as the Mfon Usoro Cup held over the weekend at the Table Tennis Bowl of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, where 16 male lawyers and seven female lawyers participated in this year’s tournament.
At the end of the games, last year’s winner Tunji Abdulhammed, once again emerged as winner in the male category, while Titilayo Osagie took the prize for the female category – cash prize of a hundred thousand Naira (N100, 000.00) each and return tickets to the 2015 International Bar Association (IBA) Conference in Vienna, from Mrs. Usoro.
Abdulhammed defeated Segun Fabunmi in the two straight sets with 11-1, 11-5 to defend his title in the men’s categories. Abdulhammed survived the early scare in the round of 16 when he lost the first set 11-13 to Taiwo Ojediran before he finally won on 11-5, 11-5 to book a quarter final pairing with Shakeer Oshodi.
The second and third place winners in both male and female category received seventy-five thousand naira (75,000) and fifty thousand naira (50,000), respectively.
Titilayo Osagie, who has won the prize for the female category since 2010, when the women category was introduced to the game, also received a cash gift of fifty thousand naira (N50, 000) from Mrs. Efe Etomi, Partner at FRA Williams, and wife of Pioneer Chair of the Section on Business Law (SBL), George Etomi.
Speaking at the event, Mfon Usoro, promoter of the Tourney, called on female lawyers to show interest in the championship as she promises to make the tournament bigger next year. “Six years on, we thank God that the tournament keep improving year after years. The tournament started with only lawyers from Lagos; precisely, NBA Ikeja branch, but today it has gone beyond Lagos, as we now have participants from Ibadan.
“I want to stress that the tournament has achieved it purpose and our aim is to make it bigger every year. My wish is to see more female lawyers participating in the tournament next year. We always have in our future plan to move the tournament from Lagos state to other states of the federation.”
The Lawyers’ Table Tennis Tournament (Mfon Usoro Cup) was introduced in 2009 in Lagos. The competition is not only open to Lagos lawyers but Nigerian lawyers in general.
According to the organisers, the intention is to develop the competition into a Lawyers Games, incorporating other sports like Lawn Tennis, Soccer, etc.
