Africa’s leading table tennis star, Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna, will come up against Romania’s Eduard Ionescu in the Round of 64 in the men’s singles table tennis event at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
The 35-year-old, who is set to make his fifth appearance at the Olympics, has been pitted against a familiar foe in the second round after he was handed a bye in the first round, as he is one of the top 16 ranked players at the Games.
Aruna and Ionescu have previously met once, in the semifinal of the European Champions League, with the Romanian coming out on top 3-2, making the Paris Olympics their second ever meeting.
Meanwhile, Aruna’s compatriots and Nigeria’s other representatives in the table tennis event, Olajide Omotayo, OPffiong Edem, and Fatimo Bello, also got to know their respective opponents during the draw, which was conducted on Wednesday at the South Paris Arena.
Omotayo, a second-time Olympian, faces a tough task in the first round of the men’s singles event, where he has been drawn against Iran’s Noshad Alamiyan, ranked 51st in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) ranking, 53 spots above the Nigerian.
The experienced Edem, who like Aruna is competing in her fifth Olympics, will face off against Brazil’s Bruna Takahashi, while Games debutant Fatimo Bello will face a herculean task against the 39-year-old Chinese-born French star Jia Nan Yuan in the first round of the women’s singles.
The draw also evoked mixed reactions from other African representatives, with some getting favourable outcomes while others were handed some tough opposition.
With a huge age difference between them, Africa’s No. 2, Omar Assar of Egypt, will face debutant Fabio Rakotoarimanana, who is the first table tennis player from Madagascar to qualify for the Olympics.
Algeria’s Mehdi Bouloussa will take on Croatia’s Tomislav Pucar, the 53rd player in the world; Nigeria-born Congo Brazzaville’s Saheed Idowu will square up against Sweden’s Anton Kallberg, while Senegal’s Ibrahima Diaw, who is the only African starting his campaign from the preliminary round of the men’s singles, will square up against Santoo Shrestha from Nepal.
In the women’s singles, African champion Dina Meshref of Egypt will face Spain’s Maria Xiao; her compatriot Hana Goda will battle Dutch star Britt Eerland; while Algeria’s Lynda Loghraibi will have to be at her best if she is to overcome world No. 2 Chen Meng of China.
Cameroon’s Sarah Hanffou will be hoping to progress to the first round when she faces Guyana’s Chelsea Edghill in the preliminary round of the women’s singles.
Elsewhere, in the draws for the team event, the continent’s flagbearer, Egypt, was handed tough tasks against Chinese Taipei and China in the first round of the men’s and women’s events, respectively.
This means Assar and Meshref will face world No. 1 Wang Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha of China in the first round of the mixed doubles event.
With the Paris Olympics underway, table tennis fans can catch the action and excitement of the contests when it kicks off on Sunday, July 27.
