Coach Kasali Lasisi is Kwara’s most distinguished table-tennis figures and has been involved in the ongoing festival, including interaction with the Sports Commission and the table-tennis contingent.
Coach Kasali Lasisi is one of the most accomplished table-tennis personalities produced by Kwara State and Nigeria. His name is closely associated with Nigeria’s golden era of table tennis in the 1970s and 1980s.
Lasisi began his playing career in the Western States in 1965 before moving to Kwara in 1975. He subsequently represented Kwara at national competitions and Nigeria at major international events. He retired from competitive table tennis in 1981 and immediately moved into coaching and sports development.
As an athlete, he was a former Captain of the Nigerian national table-tennis team, national champion, African champion and Commonwealth champion. He was also part of Nigeria’s highly successful generation of table-tennis players that dominated the African scene in the 1970s.
His African record is particularly impressive. He won the Men’s Singles title at the 1976 African Table Tennis Championships, while also featuring prominently in the Men’s Doubles competition.
He was also a gold medallist at the 1978 African Games in Algiers, where records listed him among the Men’s Doubles champions.
Beyond his playing career, Lasisi built an extensive coaching career. He served for years with the Kwara State Sports Council, including as Head of Coaching and Research, before moving to Kano State. He later worked in professional coaching and assisted national coaches and Nigerian teams at international competitions.
His coaching career eventually took him outside Nigeria. He had coaching engagements in Congo-Kinshasa, Congo-Brazzaville and Gabon, and spent about eight years as Technical Adviser to the Congo-Brazzaville Table Tennis Federation.
He also served within African coaching structures, including work with cadet teams, and led an African cadet team to the United States in 2012.
Lasisi subsequently established the Kasali Lasisi Table Tennis Academy (KLTTA) in Kwara in an attempt to reproduce the talent-development system that had helped make Nigeria a continental powerhouse. Although the academy eventually closed because of inadequate sustained funding, some of the players it produced continued to make their mark.
His influence on younger Kwara athletes is also evident in the testimony of former Kwara table-tennis player Jide Allen, who recalled training under Lasisi when he was Head Coach of table tennis at the Kwara State Sports Council.
In recognition of his contribution to Nigerian sports, Lasisi has also been associated with the National Sports Merit Award. As recently as 2024, he continued to speak strongly about the need to rebuild Nigeria’s table-tennis development system, particularly through cadet competitions, stronger technical structures and greater involvement of former international players.
At the ongoing 8th Kwara State Sports Festival (KWAFEST 2026), Coach Kasali Lasisi represents much more than a former champion. His presence connects the present generation of athletes with one of the most successful periods in Kwara and Nigerian table-tennis history.
He has been involved around the table-tennis contingent, and that Executive Chairman of the Kwara State Sports Commission, Coach Bolakale Adisa Magaji said that he invited the legendary former champion to be part of the Games.
His decades of experience as an elite player and international coach gives him an exceptional understanding of technique, preparation and competition.
His presence exposes young athletes to someone who actually competed at the highest level and won major international honours. Having spent much of his career developing young players, Lasisi is well positioned to recognise promising talents coming through the festival.
His participation gives KWAFEST a direct link to the generation that established Kwara as one of Nigeria’s important table-tennis centres.
Young athletes can see that a player from Kwara can rise from the local system to become an African and Commonwealth champion and subsequently an international coach. His experience in Nigeria and across Central and West Africa gives the festival access to knowledge extending beyond the immediate competition.
Lasisi has consistently argued that Nigeria needs more competitions, better grassroots preparation and stronger technical structures, principles that are central to the purpose of a state sports festival.
There is a powerful story here: Kasali Lasisi is not merely watching the next generation compete; he is part of the generation that created the pathway they are now following.
He emerged from the competitive system of the 1960s and 1970s, represented Kwara and Nigeria, became an African and Commonwealth champion, moved into coaching and eventually worked internationally. Decades later, he is back in the Kwara sporting environment, witnessing another generation of athletes compete at a state festival designed to discover and develop future champions.
That makes his presence at KWAFEST 2026 symbolically important. He is both a product of Kwara’s sporting history and a resource for its sporting future.
