Canaan Table Tennis Chairman Orok Duke Named C'River Table Tennis Association Chairman, Pledges Continuous Support
By Missang AKPET
The Chairman of the Canaan Table Tennis Club Rt. Hon. Orok Duke, has been appointed Chairman of the Table Tennis Association under the Cross River State Sports Commission.
Duke who is also Cross River State representative on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Board, was among several individuals inaugurated into various sports associations in the commission on Monday.
Inaugurating the associations, the chairman of the Cross River State Sports Commission Mr. Etta Lawrence said the members of the various associations were carefully chosen due to their capacity and enthusiasm for the various sports.
He hinted that those appointed are people of proven integrity while charging them to be goal oriented in revamping sports in the state.
Responding after the inauguration, the chairman of the Table Tennis Association Rt. Hon Orok Duke said sports administration requires passion and to succeed you must have an interest in it.
Duke disclosed that to get it right, young talents in the state must be harnessed young and incubated into future stars citing the likes of Offiong Edem and Cecilia who were nurtured by the Canaan Table Tennis club to become stars.
“There is a lot of work to be done in sport in Cross River State. We need to catch them young and incubate them. If we groom players not from Cross River and later on they move over to other states and even compete against Cross River, we lose. But if we groom them internally, they will move forward.
“We will need to go out into the field and look for money and sponsors to help out our various associations and help the commission. The commission may not have the needed money to give to us but we must get the job done"
"For me, I shall continue to put in my best and contribute as always to the growth of sports in the state" he said.
Duke however called on the commission to complete abandoned sports facilities and renovate dilapidated ones while projecting a 2–3 year timeline to return the state to peak performance in sports.
