Aruna Quadri defeats Egypt’s Saleh to retain ITTF African championship title

Aruna Quadri has defeated Egypt’s Ahmed Saleh to clinch his second consecutive title in the men’s singles of the 2023 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) African championship.

The 35-year-old Nigerian thrashed his Egyptian opponent in four straight sets to defend his title on Sunday in Tunis, Tunisia.

Last year, Quadri had to come from two sets down to beat Omar Assar, arguably his toughest rival, to claim his second ITTF crown.

However, Saleh proved a lesser adversary this year and was blown away by the world number 18.

Quadri took the first set with a one-sided 11-2 win before triumphing 12-10 in the second set. Saleh was overwhelmed and lost the subsequent set by 11-6.

In the women’s singles final, 15-year-old Hana Goda of Egypt defeated her compatriot Dina Meshref 4-1 to take the title.

Earlier, the duo of 47-year-old Funke Oshonaike and Fatimo Bello won gold in the women’s doubles event.

They defeated Cameroon’s Sarah Hanffou and Egypt’s Marwa Alhodaby 3-2 in a nerve-wracking final on Saturday.

The Nigerian team managed only two gold medals at the 2023 ITTF African championship.

Egypt edged Nigeria for the men’s and women’s team gold medals and automatic tickets to the Paris 2024 Olympics.

The Egyptian duo of Omar Assar also defeated Oshonaike and Olajide Omotayo for the mixed doubles title.