Aruna Quadri Qualifies For Tokyo Olympics
Aruna Quadri has earned the berth to represent Nigeria at the table tennis event of the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
The 32-year-old secured the qualification by virtue of his position on the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Olympic qualification ranking as of June 1.
The development was announced on the Twitter page of ITTF Africa on Tuesday.
“The International Table Tennis Federation(ITTF) has confirmed the Tokyo Olympic qualification of Africa’s No.1 player Aruna Quadri on the basis of world ranking allocation in the latest June 2021 ITTF Olympics qualification ranking,” the tweet read.
Quadri joins Olajide Omotayo, Edem Offiong, and Funke Oshonaike as Nigeria’s representatives in table tennis at the Olympics.
Tokyo will be Quadri’s third Olympics, having represented the country in London 2012 and Rio 2016.
In Brazil, he defeated Chuang Chih-yuan, the then 5th seed, in four straight sets before edging Timo Boll, a renowned German player, 4-1.
He was, however, stopped by Ma Long, the eventual winner, in the quarter-final.
Quadri is currently 21st in the world.