The Embassy of Hungary in Abuja has been actively looking for opportunities in the form of sports and cultural events to further strengthen the bridge between Nigeria and Hungary, while appealing to a wide local audience. In our experience, Nigerian people are passionate about sports, games and participating in community activities. Since one of the most successful table tennis players of the world, Aruna Quadri, is from Nigeria, we had hoped a tournament in the popular sport would spark a great interest.
We were not disappointed.
To commemorate the Hungarian national holiday of 23 October, the anniversary of the Uprising of 1956, we organised the EMBASSY OF HUNGARY TABLE TENNIS CHALLENGE CUP ’56 charity event in the sports hall of the Transcorp Hilton Hotel Abuja on 21 October 2017. Our goals were, on the one hand, to have as many amateur players competing as possible and, on the other, to entertain the audience with professionals clashing in spectacular matches. The result: we even had applicants from the local political elite, while the Table Tennis Department contributed to the success of the event by providing us with the tables and assigning referees.
It has been a wonderful feeling to provide such an opportunity for informal networking to the members of the diplomatic corps, the local administration, businesspeople, students and sportspersons, while our common aim was charity as well as teambuilding.
A total of 68 entrants participated in the event, ladies and gentlemen on both professional and amateur levels, resulting in four winners, runner-ups and third place finishers. In addition, all participants received a key holder with the Hungarian coat of arms.
The award ceremony was part of of the programme of our National Holiday Reception, where the donations were offered to an educational institution taking care of orphaned children in Adamawa State.
We are planning to organise the Embassy of Hungary Table Tennis Challenge Cup ’56, among other sports and cultural events, in 2018 as well.
