Paris 2024 Olympics: Aruna begins battle for Table Tennis history

Aruna Quadri will begin the battle to make history as the first Nigerian and African man to win a medal in the table tennis event after coming very close eight years ago in Rio De Janeiro.

The 35 year old lost to world number one and eventual champion, Ma Long in the quarterfinals of the event.

Aruna will be hoping to make the best of his fourth appearance at the Games to make history and he will need to get past Eduard Ionescu of Romania on Saturday night.

The Nigerian is not new to the Romanian as they have met once with the latter winning 3-2 at the semifinals of the European Champions League.

This will be a perfect stage for Aruna to extract his pound of flesh and move towards history.

Also playing Saturday night is Olajide Omotayo who is making his second appearance at the quadrennial event after making his debut three years ago in Tokyo, Japan. .

Omotayo will face Iranian, Noshad Alamiyan who is playing in his third Olympics.

The Nigerian was eliminated in the first round three years ago, losing to Tiago Apolónia in straight sets, and will be looking to go beyond the first round in Paris.
Omotayo has been playing in the French league for the past two to three years and will be hoping for ‘home support’ from his place of residence.