Again, Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri is making global headline, as the African champion has been nominated for the 2014 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Star Awards.
Quadri, whose exceptional performance at the last World Cup in Dusseldorf, Germany moved him from 73 in the world to 30 was also at the weekend in United States named the second best player at the 2014 North American Table Tennis Teams Championships.
In a release by ITTF on Wednesday, Quadri was nominated in the male table tennis star of the year for the second ITTF Star Awards alongside, world number one, China’s Xu Xin and his compatriot, Fan Zhendong, who is the 2014 Youth Olympic Games gold medallist. Also nominated is Portugal’s Marcos Freitas, who is the 2014 European Team Championships winner and the first Portuguese player to be ranked top 10 in the world.
Aside being nominated in the male star category, Quadri’s crucial point against Olympics and World Champion, China’s Jan Zhike at the World Cup was also picked in the star point of the year category.
The award ceremony will hold in Dubai on January 7 at the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, the Armani Hotel.
According to ITTF, it is the state-of-the art venue for the Dubai 2014 ITTF Star Awards Evening, the second time the glamorous event has been staged, the first being earlier this year in the same Gulf state.
Proceedings will take place immediately after the 2015 World Team Cup.
Nominees for the female star are China’s Ding Ning, 2014 ITTF Women’s World Cup winner and world number one; Feng Tianwei of Singapore, who won three ITTF World Tour events in 2014; Kasumi Ishikawa of Japan, silver medalist at the 2014 World Team Table Tennis Championships and China’s Liu Shiwen, 2014 Asian Games champion.
Other awards listed for the day include, Para male star, para female star, star coach and fair play star of the year.
Voting has commenced for the award and fans can now vote for their star player of the year at 2014 ITTFStarAwards.com.
The voting will end on Wednesday 17th December 2014, while fans’ votes will be combined with judging by an expert panel, including their peers and the media to determine the Table Tennis Stars of 2014.
Meanwhile in far away United States, out of the 18 matches played at the 17th edition of North American
Table Tennis Teams Championships, Quadri only lose one to be named the second best player of the competition.
Quadri, who is a member of Joola’s three-man team, also inspired his team to second place at the tournament attended by top teams from China.
Quadri played alongside former world champion and Olympian, Jörg Roßkopf as well as Austria’s Chen Weixing in the Joola team.
Winning 17 of his matches, Quadri had play second fiddle to the Chinese star during the award ceremony for the top three players of the championship.
Over 207 teams made up of 825 players from all around the world played the three-day action packed tournament powered by JOOLA. The beautiful Gaylord National Hotel & Resort was the venue for this year’s competition.
The 207 teams were split into 13 divisions, from beginners to world class players. In the exciting final of Division 1, Atlanta International Table Tennis Academy 1 was crowned champions, defeating Team JOOLA, 3-1.
From the eight matches played by the Joola team, it was in the final encounter against Atlanta International Table Tennis Academy that the team dropped a game in the tournament attended by top Chinese players.
For their efforts, Quadri and his team was presented with a plague and $4000 for their efforts.
The organizers admitted that the presence of the African Champion added glamour to the tournament while his superb forehand, which has helped him to defeat some of the top rated players in the world thrilled the American fans.
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