'My ex nearly ruined my career' Nigerian table tennis star reveals

She has ruled the Nigerian table tennis women’s singles for 14 years and  has been an African champion for six years.

Offiong Edem has an astonishing five All Africa Games gold and a silver under her belt, and has reached the quarterfinals of the Commonwealth Games on three occasions but all these feats would have never been achieved if she did not recover from a career slump which was caused by her ex.

In an interview with Daylight, the Nigerian tale tennis star revealed that her ex-boyfriend nearly ruined her career during the All Africa Games in 2000.

She revealed that her boyfriend left her before the tournament which ruined her chances of winning medals for Nigeria at the games.

“My most horrible moment was at the All African Games in 2000 in Algeria,’’she began.

“It was when I had problem with my boyfriend and it affected me so badly for more than a year. I was disturbed and could not focus on my game, thereby losing important games. I was distracted and my mind was not just in the game. It was not easy because it affected me so badly that everybody noticed but I couldn’t just share it with anybody," the Cross-River State born tennis star said.

Offiong obviously recovered from that slump win many medals in subsequent All Africa Games and ruled African women tennis for over a decade.

On the personal front she is also winning as she revealed that she is enjoying a blissful relationship with her new boyfriend.

“I am in a relationship, we are very close now but I can’t say if I am going to marry him or if he will marry me, but we are just good friends and anything can happen. I like him enough to marry him, that is if he wants to, but I won’t force myself to him, it is something we pray about because he is a nice person. I just need to leave him to God…. He is a Nigerian,’’ she said.