Table Tennis: Quadri Aruna clinch Olympics ticket for Nigeria

The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has officially confirmed the eventual qualification of Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna and Algeria’s Lynda Loghraibi for the singles event of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in France.

The ITTF, which has representation in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe, issued a statement on Friday that confirmed the information.

“As the countdown to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games intensifies, ITTF is thrilled to announce significant progress in the qualification process for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.”

With less than 50 days to the games, this week’s world ranking update saw eight athletes secure their participation based on the selection of continental quotas allocated by World Ranking.

According to the statement, the Men’s Singles draw welcomes African powerhouse, Quadri Aruna from Nigeria, alongside the Americas’ rising talent Nicolas Burgos from Chile.

The list also had Asia’s Kirill Gerassimenko of Kazakhstan and Europe’s Alvaro Robles of Spain, who previously qualified in Mixed Doubles.

The ITTF also said that the Women’s Singles competition would showcase a similar level of global talent with the qualification of Lynda Loghraibi from Algeria (Africa), Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico (Americas) and Singapore’s Zhou Jingyi (Asia).

Also Yang Xiaoxin of Monaco (Europe) can now officially begin their preparations for their Olympic dreams in Paris.”

ITTF stated that the qualification process would reach its penultimate stage with only one more world ranking update scheduled before the final roster for Paris is confirmed.

“Next week’s world rankings will be crucial in determining the final competitors for the highly anticipated Paris 2024 Games, 86 men and 86 women are expected to compete in the singles events of the Olympic Games,” ITTF added in the statement.

Meanwhile, ITTF has named three Africans – Akram Ben Attia (Tunisia), Es-Sayed Elrawdy (Egypt) and Ronald Mugwanya (Uganda) among the umpires for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. (NAN)