By Victor Kanayo
Table Tennis star, Quadri Aruna of Nigeria has again won the men’s singles title at the 2023 ITTF-Africa Senior Championship in Tunisia.
This was after he deafed his rival Egypt’s Ahmed Saleh 4-0 (11-2, 12-10, 11-6, 11-6) on Sunday.
The number one ranked African player had defeated compatriot Olajide Omotayo with a commanding 4-0 victory (12-10, 11-6, 11-9, 11-2) to advance to the final, while Saleh recovered from a 0-2 game deficit to outclass Idowu Saheed 4-2 (12-14, 8-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-8, 11-7) in the second men’s singles semi-final to set up the final matchup.
2019 African Games champion, Omotayo and Congo’s Saheed settled for bronze medals.
Aruna, 35, who is the first African player to be ranked top 10 in the world, won the second gold medal for Nigeria in the Championship.
Aruna has now won his third continental title.
He won the second title last year in Algeria with a 4-3 nerve-wracking win against Egypt’s Omar Assar.
In the Women’s double final, Nigerian pair of Olufunke Oshonaike and Fatima Bello picked first gold for the country feat by defeating Cameroon’s Sarah Hanffou and Alhodaby Mariam of Egypt 3-2 (11-6, 8-11,11-4, 7-11, 12-10) at Salle Omnisport de Rades.
In the women’s singles final, sensational 15-year-old, Hana Goda, won gold and emerged Champion.
She defeated Dina Meshref 4-1(11-7, 11-4, 13-11, 8-11, 11-4).
