The Nigerian trio of Olajide Omotayo, Offiong Edem, and Fatimo Bello will all get to know their respective first-round opponents when the official draws for the table tennis event in the much-anticipated Paris 2024 Olympics take place on Wednesday, July 24.
A mammoth 172 athletes (86 men and 86 women) are set to battle it out across five events—singles and doubles (two per gender) as well as mixed doubles—at the Paris Games when the event kicks off on Saturday, July 27 at South Paris Arena.
Omotayo, who returns to the Olympics for his second appearance, will commence his participation in the men’s singles event from the preliminary rounds; same for the duo of Edem, a five-time Olympian, and Bello, a Games’ debutant, who both are competing in the women’s singles event.
Meanwhile, Africa’s No. 1 table tennis star Quadri Aruna, who is one of the top 16 seeds in the table tennis event at the much-anticipated Paris 2024 Olympics, has been granted a bye in the preliminary round, which will see the Nigerian skip a stage and commence his hunt for a first-ever Olympic medal from the Round of 64.
The five-time Olympian, who enjoyed his best performance at the Games eight years ago following a quarterfinal outing at Rio 2016 in Brazil, will begin his own participation in the Games on Sunday, July 28.
Furthermore, Egyptian star and Africa’s No. 2 in the men’s category, Omar Assar, who equalled Aruna’s last eight feat at the last edition of the Games in Tokyo 2020, is also one of the top 16 seeds in the men’s singles category, granting him a bye to the next round.
Assar’s compatriot Dina Meshref, Hana Goda, and Mohamed El-Beiali, as well as Senegal’s Ibrahima Diaw, Cameroon’s Sarah Hanffou, the Algerian duo of Mehdi Bouloussa and Lyna Loghraibi, and 21-year-old phenom Fabio Rakotoarimanana of Madagascar, will all begin their quest from the preliminary rounds of the men’s and women’s singles.
