Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri has withdrawn from the men’s singles event at the ongoing 2024 ITTF African championships in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, due to injury, Afrosport reports.
The 36-year-old, who was involved in helping Nigeria win the men’s team event, said it was important to take the decision after feeling a slight discomfort in his hamstring.
Quadri said: “I have been playing in different tournaments since two months now; I was in India, I was in Macao in China. I started to play in the League in Saudi Arabia immediately after China, I rested a little bit at home and went to the French League again where we were in training camp for some days.
“Immediately we finished the French League, I travelled almost three hours after, I got here and I was a little bit tired. Also, it is not that easy here, it was difficult to acclimatise due to the high altitude here, so I found it a little bit difficult.
“During the team event, I felt a little bit [of] tightness in my hamstring. So I think it’s very important to rest so that I don’t get it complicated because there are so many tournaments that we will play again before the end of the year” he concluded.
This new development means the four-time Olympian will not be able to defend the title he won last year in Tunis, Tunisia.
Aruna won the 2023 title in dominant style after overcoming Ahmed Saleh of Egypt in the final.
The Nigerian convincingly won 4-0 [11-2, 12-10, 11-6, 11-6] .
