After failing to qualify to the elite division of the biennial ITTF World Team Championship, Nigeria and Egypt will again campaign in second tier in 2018.
From the rating of teams, Egypt finished ahead of Nigeria in the ranking having made it to the semifinal stage while Nigeria did not advance beyond the quarterfinal round.
As it is, Egypt is ranked 27th while Nigeria occupies 29th place as the eight-day championship ends on Sunday March 6 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
However, the race for the African sole slot in the men’s team event of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games continues between Nigeria and Egypt as their players aim to garner points to become the best team from the continent.
With the absence of Nigeria women team, Egypt has automatically qualified for the women team event of the Olympic Games.
Nigeria will have to wait for the decision of ITTF to know its fate in the women cadre after the West Africa side failed to make it to the tournament.
Meanwhile, Asian giants – China and Japan will battle for the titles in the men and women finals of the competition.
To berth in the final of the men’s event, China edged out South Korea 3-0 while Japan worked hard for their 3-1 win over giant killing English team.
For the women’s final, it is China and Japan again after China beat Chinese Taipei 3-0 with Japan dismissing Korea DPR 3-1.
Over 90 teams across the world took part in the biggest tournament in the ITTF calendar.
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