The Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) has named Quadri Aruna, Offiong Edem, Olajide Omotayo, and Fatimo Bello as Nigeria’s flagbearers at the 2024 ITTF African Cup and Olympics Qualification tournament.

In a statement on Sunday, NTTF said the tournament would take place in Kigali, Rwanda, from May 12 to 18.

It said the selection was made in accordance with the tournament’s prospectus: ” Each 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 and Rwanda will present four men and four women as the host country,” it stated.

In a list of participants released by the continental table tennis ruling body, the African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF), Omar Assar of Egypt, the men’s singles defending champion, will be joined by his compatriot Hana Goda, who will also be defending her title in the women’s singles.

Aruna, a finalist at the 2022 edition held in Lagos, Nigeria, suffered an injury in the finals to forfeit the match to Assar after emerging 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.

Aruna, who had dropped to 19th place in the ITTF ranking, would use the tournament to move to the top of the world rating.

However, he will again face a Herculean task against the Egyptian trio of Assar, Mohamed El-Beiali, and Youssef Abdel-Aziz.

Omotayo, who had yet to show why he was crowned the 2019 African Games champion, would look forward to another showdown against some of the finest African stars in Kigali.

Similarly, Edem, who spearheaded Nigeria’s silver medal at the 13th African Games, would look forward to repeating 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 in the hope of reenacting her 2022 form in Rwanda.

At the Olympics Qualification Tournament, Aruna hopes to make his fourth Olympic Games appearance when the event kicks off on May 16 at the BK Arena in Kigali.

Egypt will not compete as they have already picked their tickets for the 2023 African Championships in Tunisia. 

(NAN)