Aruna Quadri: will also participate at the competition

At least two African table tennis players will feature in the men’s event of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF’s) World Cup, for the first time in history.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the tournament would hold from Oct. 20 to Oct. 22 in Liege, Belgium.

The ITTF’s Africa Media department on Monday said in a statement that the performance of the two best African players yielded positive results.

This, according to the statement, made it possible for Africa to present two players for the first time at the annual championship.

The statement announced Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri and Egypt’s Omar Assar as the continent’s flag bearers.

It quoted Khaled El-Salhy, an elated President of African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF) describing the development as a giant stride for table tennis in Africa.

“Congratulations to Africa for the first time to have two qualifiers to participate in the ITTF Men’s World Cup.

“Quadri already qualified earlier in July as per his title in ITTF-Africa Cup that was held in Agadir, Morocco, and I can confirm to you that Assar of Egypt also qualified as per World Ranking.

“I was following up the ITTF-Asian Cup that has been concluded to calculate the possibility for Omar Assar, comparing him with the top number fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth ranked players in Asia and Europe.

“This is a fantastic moment in the history of Table Tennis in Africa by having two qualifiers among the top 20 players in the World Cup.

This, for sure is due to the high ranking of our top African players. I wish Quadri and Assar the best of luck to represent Africa in the forthcoming tournament,” said the ATTF’s president.

(NAN)