The Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) has named Quadri Aruna, Offiong Edem, Olajide Omotayo and Fatimo Bello as Nigeria’s flagbearers at the 2024 ITTF African Cup and Olympics Qualification Tournament.
This is contained in a statement by NTTF obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)on Sunday in Lagos.
The Federation said that the tournament would take place in Kigali, Rwanda, from May 12 to 18.
It said that the selection was done in accordance with the prospectus of the tournament, “each country is expected to present two men and two women for the African Cup.”
“While Egypt as the defending champions in men and women will present three players each and Rwanda will present four men and four women as the host country,” it stated.
In a list of participants released by the continental table tennis ruling body, African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF), Omar Assar of Egypt, the men’s singles defending champion, would be joined by his compatriot – Hana Goda, who would also be defending her title in the women’s singles.
Aruna, a finalist at the 2022 edition held in Lagos, Nigeria, suffered an injury in the finals to forfeit the match to Assar after emerging from the brink of defeat to level up.
He led in the seventh game, but a thigh injury forced him to surrender the title to the Egyptian in front of the supporting Lagos fans.
Aruna, who had dropped in the ITTF ranking to 19th place, would use the tournament to move to the top of the world rating.
He, however, will again be facing a Herculean task against the Egyptian trio of Assar, Mohamed El-Beiali and Youssef Abdel-Aziz.
Omotayo, who had yet to show why he was crowned the 2019 African Games champion, would be looking forward to another showdown against some of the finest African stars in Kigali.
Similarly, Edem, who spearheaded Nigeria’s silver medal at the 13th African Games, would be looking forward to a repeat of her Accra’s superlative performance in Kigali.
Bello, a finalist at the 2022 edition must have put her below-par performance in Ghana behind her, with a hope of reenacting her 2022 form in Rwanda.
At the Olympics Qualification Tournament, Aruna would be eyeing his fourth Olympic Games appearance, when the event kicks off on May 16 at the BK Arena in Kigali.
Egypt will not be competing as they had already picked their tickets at the 2023 African Championships in Tunisia.