Aruna Quadri has won the men’s singles event of the ITTF Challenge Polish Open.

The Nigerian defeated Japan’s Kaii Yoshida after six sets (11-7, 11-13 11-8, 6-11, 11-8, 14-12) to become the first African to win an ITTF title outside the continent.



The match against the Japanese lived up to expectation as both players tested each other strength-for-strength and skill-for-skill but it was the Nigerian who had the last laugh.

Although Quadri’s opponent enjoyed support from the home fans — as he plies his trade in the Polish league — the number one seed for the tournament emerged the victor.

Prior to beating the Japanese in the final, Quadri had defeated Kazakhstan’s Kirill Gerassimenko (11-5, 8-11, 11-8, 11-6, 7-11, 11-6) in the semi-final stage of the competition.

Prior to beating the Japanese in the final, Quadri had defeated Kazakhstan’s Kirill Gerassimenko (11-5, 8-11, 11-8, 11-6, 7-11, 11-6) in the semi-final stage of the competition.

In the women’s singles event, it was an all-Japanese affair as ITTF World Cup defending champion Mima Ito defeated her compatriot Saki Shibata to emerge as the winner.

Quadri is among the top 20 players in the world that will compete at the prestigious ITTF World Cup in Liege, Belgium from October 20 to 22.

Lalasticlala

Tolexander:
Good!

Kudos to the Oyo town born Quadri.
We are proud of you for making Nigerians proud.

Olympic Gold shall be yours in the next summer Olympics.

A very good replacement for the aged Segun Toriola.

IPOBrep:

Tolexander:
Good!

Kudos to the Oyo town born Quadri.
We are proud of you for making Nigerians proud.

Olympic Gold shall be yours in the next summer Olympics.

A very good replacement for the aged Segun Toriola.

Afam4eva:
I'll like to see a match between Aruna Quadri and Segun Toriola.

Table Tennis is something i can die for.

Omofunaab2:
So proud of Aruna Quadri, He made history at the 2016 Rio Olympics by becoming the first African to reach the Quarter finals of the table tennis single event. . He is currently ranked number one in Africa and he will represent Africa at the ITTF World Cup in France


Yorubas are the Masters when it comes to table tennis in Nigeria and Africa at large... Only the Egyptians are competing with us... Many of our Athletes have represented Nigeria in the Olympic games and won many laurels for Nigeria both at the common wealth and the All African games.


From the legend Segun Toriola, bode abiodun, bose kaffo, our own
Monday Merotohun from Ogun state, Olufunke Oshonaike, Atanda Musa, kareem nasiru, Sule olaleye, Abiola odumosu and others.

I like the fact that we have young talents who will replace Aruna Quadri and funke Oshonaike.. The likes of Esther oribamise and Azeez Solanke are both tipped to do that.

Esther oribamise has qualified for next year's junior Olympics in Argentina, azeez lost in the semi final


Out of the ten players selected to represent Nigeria at the Africa junior table tennis championship in Tunisia, eight were yorubas

We have so many Table Tennis tournaments here in the West


We love Table Tennis in the West.

.

naptu2:
Nigeria has dominated the table tennis scene in Africa for a very long time, but I fear that we are about to totally lose our crown and what happened in athletics after the year 2000 is about to happen in table tennis.

We currently have Aruna Quadri, who was declared the star of 2014 by the International Table Tennis Federation, but we have nobody else challenging him. In the past, when we had the great Atanda Musa, there was also a Yomi Bankole to keep him on his toes. When we had Sule Olaleye, there was also a Segun Toriola, but now, all we have is Aruna Quadri.

This is a far cry from the past when there were all Nigeria finals at the African Championships and All Africa Games and we won several Commonwealth titles (Atanda Musa and Segun Toriola).

It's worse in the women's section. Cecilia Effiong is good, but I do not think that she is nearly as good as the Funke Oshonaike, Bose Kaffo, Kuburat Owolabi, Kehinde Okenla and Olawunmi Majekodunmi that we had in the past. And there's no one else besides her.

The Asoju Oba of Lagos, Chief Molade Okoya-Thomas played a massive role in the development of table tennis in Nigeria. The Asoju Oba table tennis championships, which was created and funded by Chief Okoya-Thomas, was the biggest table tennis tournament in Nigeria. All the big names in table tennis in Nigeria played at the tournament. The prize money was mouth watering and Atanda Musa famously beat Yomi Bankole in the 1984 edition to win a Peugeot 504 (Chief Okoya-Thomas always had close links with french companies. Hewas the chairman of CFAO Nigeria, which had a division [CFAO Motors] that sold Peugeot cars. He was also awarded the highest national honour by the french president). Old Man collaborated with Chief Okoya-Thomas on the Asoju Oba competition (I still have a picture of both of them, that was taken at one of the tournaments, but I'm not sure what year), which probably explains why he was at Old Man's funeral. Chief Okoya-Thomas ran that competition for almost 40 years.

Chief Okoya Thomas was also heavily involved in tennis. He sponsored the Lord Rumens Tennis Classics after the death of Lord Rumens, was the vice chairman of the LLTC and was involved in bringing Venus and Serena Williams to Nigeria in 2012.

Unfortunately Chief Okoya-Thomas died in 2015. The Lagos State Government has promised to continue funding the Asoju Oba tournament, but I don't think that will last. I expect that the tournament will also die very soon.

Another person that greatly developed the game in Nigeria is Babatunde Obisanya. This former national team player became the greatest coach Nigeria has ever had and he coached great stars like Atanda Musa, Kasali Lasisi, Ayo Bankole, Segun Toriola, etc.


List of African table tennis champions.
2006
MEN
TORIOLA Segun NGR (champion)

WOMEN

---

2004
MEN
TORIOLA Segun NGR (champion)

WOMEN

---

2002

MEN
TORIOLA Segun NGR (champion)

MEROTOHUN M. NGR (runner up)


WOMEN
OSHONAIKE Olufunke  NGR (champion)

OFFIONG Cecilia Otu NGR (runner up)

---

2000

MEN
SALEH Ahmed  EGY (champion)

LASHIN El-Sayed  EGY (runner up)

WOMEN
EL-ALFY Shahira  EGY

NEBIYAT Ahmed  ETH

---

1998

MEN
TORIOLA Segun  NGR (champion)

LASHIN El-Sayed  EGY (runner up)

WOMEN
KAFFO Bose NGR (champion)

OWOH Atisi  NGR (runner up)

---

1996

MEN
KAZEEM Nosiru  NGR (champion)

SOBHY Ashraf  EGY (runner up)

WOMEN
OWOPETU Bimbo  NGR (champion)

BOUAZIZ Nacera  ALG (runner up)

---

1994

MEN
OLALEYE Sule  NGR (champion)

TORIOLA Segun  NGR (runner up)

WOMEN

KAFFO Bose  NGR (champion)

MESHREF Nihal  EGY (runner up)

---

1992

MEN
HELMY Ashraf  EGY (champion)

TORIOLA Segun  NGR (runner up)


WOMEN

OSHONAIKE Olufunke  NGR (champion)

ODUMOSU Abiola NGR (runner up)

---

1990

MEN
MASSAAD Adel  EGY (champion)

MUSA Atanda  NGR (runner up)

WOMEN
KAFFO Bose NGR

MAJEKODUNMI O. NGR

---

1988

MEN
MUSA Atanda  NGR (champion)

OMOTARA Titus  NGR (runner up)

WOMEN
OWOLABI ADUKE K.NGR (champion)

KAFFO Bose Olateju  NGR (runner up)

---

1985

MEN
MUSA Atanda  NGR (champion)

BANKOLE Yomi  NGR (runner up)

WOMEN
MAJEKODUNMI O. NGR (champion) 

OWOLABI ADUKE K. NGR (runner up)

---

1980

MEN
EBOH Sunday  NGR (champion)

MUSA Atanda  NGR (runner up)

WOMEN
LAMPTEY Esther  GHA (champion)

MAJEKODUNMI O. NGR (runner up)

---

1976

MEN
LASISI Kasali  NGR (champion)

AYINDE Fatai  NGR (runner up)


WOMEN
MAJEKODUNMI O. NGR (champion)

JACKS Ethel  GHA (runner up)

---

1974

MEN
EL-KABBANI Farouk EGY (champion)

SUNMOLA Lateef  NGR (runner up)

WOMEN
JACKS Ethel  GHA (champion)

MAJEKODUNMI O. NGR (runner up)

---

1968

MEN
QUAYE Emmanuel GHA (champion)

WILSON Lassey  NGR (runner up)

WOMEN
JACKS Ethel  GHA (champion)

EL-DARWISH Inas EGY (runner up)

---

1964

MEN
EZZ GALAL Fahmi EGY (champion)

EL-ABRASHY Fawzi  EGY (runner up)

WOMEN
JACKS Ethel  GHA (champion)

AKUETTEH Ernestina  GHA (runner up)

---

1962

MEN
QUAYE E. GHA (champion)

EL-ABRASHY Fawzi  EGY (runner up)

WOMEN
EL-DARWISH Inas EGY (champion)

JACKS Ethel  GHA (runner up)

Tolexander:
Good!

Kudos to the Oyo town born Quadri.
We are proud of you for making Nigerians proud.

Olympic Gold shall be yours in the next summer Olympics.

A very good replacement for the aged Segun Toriola.

nnokwa042:
there he will meet Chinese player's is like eyimba of aba meeting Barcelona [sub][

Omofunaab2:
So proud of Aruna Quadri, He made history at the 2016 Rio Olympics by becoming the first African to reach the Quarter finals of the table tennis single event. . He is currently ranked number one in Africa and he will represent Africa at the ITTF World Cup in France


Yorubas are the Masters when it comes to table tennis in Nigeria and Africa at large... Only the Egyptians are competing with us... Many of our Athletes have represented Nigeria in the Olympic games and won many laurels for Nigeria both at the common wealth and the All African games.


From the legend Segun Toriola, bode abiodun, bose kaffo, our own
Monday Merotohun from Ogun state, Olufunke Oshonaike, Atanda Musa, kareem nasiru, Sule olaleye, Abiola odumosu and others.

I like the fact that we have young talents who will replace Aruna Quadri and funke Oshonaike.. The likes of Esther oribamise and Azeez Solanke are both tipped to do that.

Esther oribamise has qualified for next year's junior Olympics in Argentina, azeez lost in the semi final


Out of the ten players selected to represent Nigeria at the Africa junior table tennis championship in Tunisia, eight were yorubas

We have so many Table Tennis tournaments here in the West


We love Table Tennis in the West.

.

Omofunaab2:

Yorubas are the Masters when it comes to table tennis in Nigeria and Africa at large... Only the Egyptians are competing with us... Many of our Athletes have represented Nigeria in the Olympic games and won many laurels for Nigeria both at the common wealth and the All African games.

Tolexander:
Good!

Kudos to the Oyo town born Quadri.
We are proud of you for making Nigerians proud.

Olympic Gold shall be yours in the next summer Olympics.

A very good replacement for the aged Segun Toriola.

Rekyz:
Quadri is Cross Riverian! Mr name checker

naptu2:


It's good to see that we have good young players that can replace them. There was a time that I was afraid that we would lose our crown as the best table tennis playing country in Africa because I couldn't see enough young players coming through. I'm glad to see that I was wrong. I wrote this back then.