By Victor Kanayo
Nigeria has named Quadri Aruna, Offiong Edem, Olajide Omotayo and Fatimo Bello as its flag bearers at the upcoming 2024 ITTF African Cup and Olympics qualification tournament scheduled for Kigali, Rwanda, between May 12 and 18, 2024.
A schedule of the tournament revealed that each participating 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.
Rwanda will present four men and four women as the host country.
In the list of participants released by the continental table tennis ruling body, African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF), Omar Assar of Egypt as the men’s singles defending champion will be joined by her compatriot – Hana Goda who will also be defending her title in the women’s singles.
Aruna as finalists at the 2022 edition held in Lagos, Nigeria, suffered an injury in the final to forfeit the match to Assar after coming back 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.
The Nigerian who had dropped in the ITTF ranking to 19th place is hoping to use the tournament to climb his way back to the top of the world rating, will again be facing a Herculean task against the Egyptian trio of Assar, Mohamed El-Beiali and Youssef Abdel-Aziz.
Omotayo who is yet to show why he was crowned the 2019 African Games champion will be looking forward to another showdown against some of the finest African stars in Kigali.
Edem who spearheaded Nigeria’s silver medal at the 13th African Games will 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 the hope of reenacting her 2022 form in Rwanda.
At the Olympics Qualification tournament, Aruna will be eyeing his fourth Olympic Games appearance when the event kicks off on May 16 at the BK Arena in Kigali, as Egypt will not be competing as they had already picked their tickets at the 2023 African Championships in Tunisia
