National table tennis coach Babatunde Obisanya has said that the country's team to the forthcoming Olympic Games in Beijing will aim for the best ever result at the competition.

Obisanya said the team was ready for the challenges ahead at the games, local media reported Thursday.

He stressed that all the six players representing Nigeria at the competition were in high spirits and raring to go.

Obisanya said, "The camp is bubbling over with excitement simply because all the players based abroad are all in town for the games."

"Our target this time is to get to the medals range of the games or at least play in the last eight in each of the categories," he said.

"This competition is the biggest stage in sports and we have to be at our very best to make the expected impact in Beijing," he added.

The coach, who will be traveling to Beijing for his fourth Olympics, stressed that the preparation could have been better with an early overseas training tour.

Nigeria will parade three male and three female players in the singles and team events at the Olympics.

The female players are Funke Osonaike, Bose Kafo and Cecilia Otu while the male representatives are Segun Toriola, Kazeem Nosiru and Monday Merotoun.

Obisanya is banking on the experience of the players to achieve results for Nigeria at the games.

Table tennis joined Olympic sports competitively at Seoul '88 event. A total of 172 paddlers are expected to compete for honors in Beijing at the Peking University Gymnasium.

(Xinhua News Agency July 10, 2008)