I won four golds as a nursing mother – Oshonaike

Funke Oshonaike

Former African women’s champion, Olufunke Oshonaike, sees Nigeria regaining the top spot in Africa through regular tournaments. KAZEEM BUSARI writes

The roll call of Nigerian table tennis greats will not be complete without Funke Oshonaike’s name. In fact, she would be among the all-time greats for her success and longevity in the sport.

The 37-year old mother of two, who started playing in the national team at the age of 14, did not get to being Nigeria’s number one female player by chance or through undue favouritism. As she said, she practically clawed her way bit by bit to the top of the sport in Nigeria as she rivalled former Nigeria number one, Biola Odumosu, until she deposed her.

Being the third of the ten children in the family did not starve her of attention from her parents as her father would always take her out to sporting events while encouraging her to choose her path in life.

“My dad, he’s my greatest my fan any day. He was not rich, we were not born with silver spoons but he made sure we lacked nothing,” Oshonaike said of her 75-year-old father.

“He (the father) just wanted me to succeed in anything I do and he never stopped me from playing table tennis, even when it meant I had to dodge domestic chores and missed classes at school. Thank God for what he saw in me as a child because, right now, I can’t complain of poverty; table tennis has given me what I could only dream of.

“I know how it is to be poor, and I know what it means to have wealth. I can live in both worlds because I’ve been there and done that.”

Oshonaike started playing table tennis on soakway slabs in backyards and on makeshift boards and benches at Apata area in Shomolu where the family lived. After gaining some skills, she started playing on standard boards, where everyone would place bets on her.

Being a young petit girl then, nobody believed she could beat boys who were, in most cases, older than her, so it was easy to win bets.

“My father has been there for me right from the beginning when I took up the sport. He took me to games as a child and he bought my racket for me. But it was my older brother who started it all,” she said.

“I entered the game because my older brother used to play. As a tomboy, I played mostly with boys and always tagged along with my brother anywhere he went.

“As a young player, I never thought I would be playing at the international level. It never even crossed my mind there was a higher level than playing local competitions.”

It was the school games master at Community Primary School (now Ola-Olu Primary School) in Shomolu that first realised Funke could put her potential to better use by competing for the school. She started getting recognition right from the elementary level after winning competitions.

“I used to be a truant at school then. I would deliberately miss classes just to attend local competitions. There was a day my teacher was going to beat me for missing classes; I ran home to escape punishment and the following day, my father came with me to defend my actions,” she said. But she would later obtain a diploma in Physical and Health Education from the University of Lagos.

Oshonaike, who plays for Sports Club Poppenbuttel III in Hamburg, Germany, featured in her fifth Olympics at the London Games last year. Albeit she was the former African queen in the game, having won six gold, four silver and a couple of bronze medals at past All-Africa Games meet, she has yet to win an Olympic medal.

“The London Olympics was a sad experience for me because I thought I could do better than what I did. I guess my preparation for the Games was not adequate. I’m still playing so who knows what lies ahead in Brazil,” she said.

“The 2014 Commonwealth Games are what I’m focussing on right now. It is important Nigeria gets the best players for the competition.”

Oshonaike dismissed the claim that Nigerian players would almost always develop cold feet whenever they compete with players from Asia. She admitted Chinese players are dominant in the sport but insisted they are beatable.

“I don’t have any fear playing against Asian players. I’ve played against several Chinese players and I’ve beaten many of them before, so it’s not true that Nigerians have psychological defeat when facing players from Asia,” she said.

“The only thing I’m cautious about is there rankings in the world. Once I see that they fall within the first hundred, I approach the games with caution.

“The fact is that players from China and some other Asian countries have more training and more tournaments to improve them ahead of major competitions. It’s not that they are invincible.”

She is currently playing in the Lagos International Table Tennis Classics alongside fellow Olympians, Aruna Quadri, Edem Offiong and Segun Toriola. To her, the tournament was long overdue.

She said, “I was so happy and almost shed tears when I saw that the competition was actually taking place. Such event had not held for a long time in Nigeria, so I found it hard to believe that the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation is organising it and also featuring international players.

“There used to be competitions sponsored by several private organisations but somehow they all faded away, and nobody did anything until now.

“We should have similar competitions as often as possible to get the best players that can represent Nigeria at major events. Table tennis is not all about regular trainings, there have to be tournaments to put the players in competitive shape. They don’t have to be big tournaments; if there are smaller scale tournaments regularly, they’ll still serve the purpose.”

Even if she is not thinking of retirement just yet, Oshonaike has already decided on what to do when she calls it quits in the game. She is currently a coaching young players at her German club.

“Table tennis has given me everything in my life so I have a lot to give back in the game. As a player and a coach in Germany, I want to inspire women to take the sport more serious. But table tennis should not stop them from getting married or having a family,” said.

“I was trained with seven-month pregnancy; when my first child was just six months old, I featured in the All-Africa Games in 2003 and still won four gold medals. At Algiers 2007, I went there with my second child when he was just six months old and still won four medals. So women should know that nothing is stopping them from playing the game successfully.”