Following his success at the just ended International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) African Championships in Tunisia at the weekend where he successfully defended his singles title, Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri will now focus on qualification for the 2024 Olympic Games in France.
As the ITTF did not offer singles opportunity to the Olympics, the Nigerian star would now look forward to his ranking positions or a credible performance in singles competition later this year to validate his participation in next year’s quadrennial Games.
To win the ITTF tournament Aruna, the tournament’s number one seed, overwhelmed Ahmed Saleh of Egypt 4-0 in the final yesterday.
There were mixed feelings for Aruna in Tunis, having missed the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games ticket through injury at the same venue.
Meanwhile Egypt defeated Nigeria to pick the mixed doubles title at the ITTF tournament to secure the continental sole slot to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in France.
It was the Egyptians’ second triumph over their arch-rivals as they also beat the Nigerians to the Olympic team ticket on Wednesday, September 13, 2023.
Consequently, the Egyptians are heading to Paris to represent Africa in the men’s and women’s team events as well as in the mixed doubles competition.
To pick the ticket in the mixed doubles, the pair of Omar Assar and Dina Meshref defeated Nigeria’s duo of Olajide Omotayo and Olufunke Oshonaike 3-1 (11-8, 6-11, 11-1, 12-10).
With this development, Egypt has secured all the Paris 2024 Olympic Games tickets at stake at the 26th ITTF African Championships in Tunis.
This, however, denied Nigeria’s Oshonaike the chance to set a new record as the first Nigerian, African and table tennis player to feature in eight Olympic Games.
