Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri and Olufunke Oshonaike have qualified for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games after making it to the semifinal stage of the singles event of the 2015 African Games in Congo Brazzaville.
With this qualification, Quadri who defeated Egypt’s Ahmed Saleh 4-1 in the quarterfinal will be making his second appearance at the games after his excellent debut in 2012 when he made it to the second round.
Aruna Quadri
For the semifinal tie, Quadri will battle against Egypt’s Khalid Assar who edged out Nigeria’s Ojo Onaolapo in the quarterfinal.
Beside Quadri who secured a place at the Olympics, other players are Egypt’s Assar brothers, Omar and Khalid as well as Chinese-born Wang Jianan who defeated Segun Toriola 4-1 in the quarterfinal.
For Oshonaike, it’s a dream come true as she has equaled Segun Toriola’s sixth appearance at the games having made her debut at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games in United States.
To confirm her slot, Oshonaike defeated Egypt’s Yousra Helmy 4-2 to set up a semifinal clash against another Egyptian Nadeen El-Dawlatly on Saturday September 19.
Funke Oshonaike
The other three players that secured Olympics slots alongside Oshonaike are Egypt’s Dina Meshref and Nadeen El-Dawlatly as well as Chinese-born Congo Brazzaville’s Han Xing.
The semifinal and final matches hold on Saturday September 19.
Winner International Table Tennis Federation, ITTF World Tour, Lagos Open, Men’s Under21 Shagdy Magdy of Egypt
The Round of 16, Quarter Finals and Semi-finals of games (Singles & Doubles) went down today at the Dr.Molade Okoya Thomas Hall of the Teslim Balogun Stadium.
There were lots exciting moments to savour as Table Tennis supporters from far and wide came to watch the best players in Africa and in the world do their thing.
Nigerian Athletes have proven their worth as Ojo Onaolapo, Aruna Quadri, Funke Oshonaike and Edem Effiong have all made it to the semi-finals in the singles event.
The future also look good for Nigeria as far as table tennis is concerned as we saw a scintillating performance from Hassan Nurudeen who seems to be getting better as the day goes by and who might end up winning the U-21 title next year.
Dina Meshref at the International Table Tennis Federation, ITTF World Tour, Lagos Open, Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos, Togo
The Foreign players have also put up fine displays in this tournament like Jieni Shao, Dina Meshref, Andre Silva, El-Belaili Mohammed.
As the highest world-rated players listed for the competition, Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri and Egypt’s Dina Meshref have been seeded the top players in the men and women singles events of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Tour tagged Lagos Open.
In the seeding list released by the world table tennis ruling body, ITTF, Quadri who is rated 32 in the world is seeded number one while his arch-rival and defending champion, Egypt’s Omar Assar is seeded number two while Assar’s compatriot, Mohammed El-Beiali is number three.
The absence of Nigeria’s Segun Toriola may have paved the way for El-Beiali, who accounted for Quadri’s exit in the quarterfinal stage of the ITTF Africa Senior Championships to be seeded number three in the tournament.
Also listed in the top eight seeding list of the men’s singles are Portugal’s Andre Silva, Nigeria’s Boboye Oyeniyan, Egypt’s Khalid Assar, Nigeria’s Ojo Onaolapo and Togo’s Mawussi Agbetoglo.
Last year’s runner’s up and ITTF Africa Senior Championship winner, Meshref tops the women’s top four seeding list. Nigeria’s Funke Oshonaike and Edem Offiong are seeded two and three respectively, while Russia’s Irina Ermakova is seeded fourth.
In the U-21 seeding, defending champion in the boys’ category, Nigeria’s Onaolapo is seeded number one, while other players listed in the top four seeding list are Egypt’s duo of Shady Magdy and Mahmoud Fathy as well as Nigeria’s Olajide Omotayo.
Nigerian Women’s Team, at the 2015 ITTF-Africa Senior Championships
Egypt dominated the girls’ U-21 seeding with 20 year-old Meshref topping the seeding list. Her compatriots – Fatma Alaa and Yousra Helmy also made the list while the only Nigerian in the top four seeding list is Funke Hassan.
Meanwhile, over 90 journalists drawn from newspapers, magazine, radio and television stations including two international media, Supersport and Xinhua have been accredited for the championship serving off on March 10 at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos, Nigeria.
newfanzone 