Golden Moments In Sports: When Aruna Quadri Won Africa’s First ITTF International Title

On Sunday, October 8th 2017, Aruna Quadri, broke through the world of table tennis, to win Africa’s first ever ITTF title outside the continent. Quadri, emerged the champion of the ITTF Challenge tagged ‘Polish Open,’ after he defeated Japan’s Kaii Yoshida, 11-7, 11-13 11-8, 6-11, 11-8, 14-12 (4-2), in a very thrilling encounter. Despite being regarded as the tournament favorite to take home the title, the Nigerian still had a great deal to prove to the world and he would begin from Poland. First, Quadri had to win the hearts of the fans who from the beginning of the tournament, were not at all on his side. After a very entertaining start, the Nigerian provided the Polish fans with a riveting defeat of  Kazakhstan’s Kirill Gerassimenko (11-5, 8-11, 11-8, 11-6, 7-11, 11-6), in the semifinal stage of the competitio. Yet, the fans chose to rather boo than praise Quadri whenever he took the stage. At the final match of the competition, you would have thought — ‘Quadri has won the hearts of the fans by now’ — following his impeccable display of skill and strength through the competition. However, that was not the case for these fans who all rallied behind his opponent, Yoshida, as the game begun. This, however, did not deter Quadri, who had his eyes on gold, and he ensured he proved his critics wrong, with each bat on the ball that led to his eventual win for Nigeria and for Africa.

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This article was first published on 25th October 2018

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