Egypt won three of four titles at the ITTF Africa Youth Championships in Accra on Wednesday, as hosts Ghana fell to Nigeria in a tournament drawing a record 23 nations.
Egypt beat Nigeria 3-0 in the final at the Borteyman Sports Complex to complete a sweep of the U-15 boys’ and U-15 girls’ team titles while retaining its U-19 girls’ crown, extending its dominance of the age-group competition. Nigeria had eliminated Ghana in the knockout rounds on its way to the final.
Ghana Table Tennis Association President Mawuko Afadzinu said the tournament drew the largest field in the history of the African Table Tennis Federation’s youth competitions, calling the turnout “without precedence.” The Youth Championships alone brought 163 players, 94 boys and 69 girls, from 23 countries, part of a wider three-week programme in Accra that has drawn 22 nations overall.
Afadzinu said closing the gap with Nigeria remains Ghana’s central challenge in table tennis. “Our ambition is to beat Nigeria and to get it to category one,” he said, describing the rivalry as the key barrier standing between Ghana and the continent’s top tier. He said the tournament also forms part of a longer push to prepare Ghanaian players for Olympic qualification, framing the two goals, overtaking Nigeria and reaching the Olympics, as the tournament’s main milestones for the country.
He praised the standard of the venue, saying visiting delegates had described Borteyman as among the best facilities they had seen anywhere in Africa, and pointed to the combination of Ghana’s infrastructure and playing talent as a foundation the federation can build on.
The Youth Championships, running July 20 to 27, followed the ITTF Africa Hopes Week and Challenge held earlier in the month at the University of Ghana and Borteyman, with the ITTF Africa Youth Cup set to close out the programme from July 28 to 29