Ahead Baseball5 Opener: "We Are Here To Finish Top", Says Tunisian Coach, Riahi

Joseph ODOEKWU

Tunisia Youth Baseball5 team Coach, Sofine Riahi, has stated clearly that his side has come to Nigeria for the West African Baseball5 Regional championship to finish top and qualify for the final stage of the event and that is their main focus. 

Riahi who spoke with this writer at the NIS Complex gymnasium immediately after their training session on Friday evening disclosed this.

'We are not here to participate' he started.  'We are here to finish top and qualify for the final stage and that's our target so we shall remain focused' he added. 

When prompted to comment further on the difficulty which his side will encounter on trying to secure this feat on a West African soil where the defending champions is also from West Africa, an optimistic Riahi maintained that he does not see any barrier towards their goal. 

'We trained our players to win, and that's why we are here' Riahi continued. 'Our target is to win and finish top of the table here first, then move on to the final stage of the qualifier when we pick the slot to represent Africa in the World Cup' he insisted. 

Tunisia will open their campaign on Saturday when they face West African side Benin Republic in their opener before facing defending champions Ghana same day. 

Their final game will be against hosts, Nigeria on Sunday morning at exactly 10:30am West African side.