Oshonaike becomes first woman inductee into ‘ITTF club 7’

Funke Oshonaike, Nigerian table tennis player, has officially become the first woman inducted into the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) “club seven”.

The “ITTF club seven” is an elite list exclusive to table tennis players who have achieved the feat of participating in seven Olympic games.

Oshonaike joined the club after representing Nigeria in her seventh Olympic games in Tokyo.

The 46-year-old, whose journey at the games ended following a 4-1 defeat to Liu Juan in the women’s singles preliminary round on Saturday, has been appearing at the Olympics since Atlanta ’96.

Since making her debut at the competition at 21, Oshonaike competed unfailingly in all the subsequent Olympics.

She partook in the women singles events in Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, London 2012, Rio 2016 and the ongoing Tokyo Olympics — while her participation in Beijing 2008 was in a team’s event.

The 11-time African games medallist joins Segun Toriola, compatriot and former teammate, on the illustrious list.

Other members on the list include Jean-Michel Saive of Belgium, Zoran Primorac of Croatia, and Jorgen Persson of Sweden.

Oshonaike had earlier revealed that Tokyo would be her last Olympics as a player, adding that any future appearance will be as a spectator or an official.