TheCable

Nigeria’s male and female teams lost to Egypt in a disappointing outing at the 2021 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) African championship.

The Egyptians were ruthless in both finals that were held late Friday night in Yaounde, Cameroon.

Not even the spirited effort of Aruna Quadri, who produced magical moments to win two games against Egypt’s Saleh Ahmed and Omar Assar, could help the men’s team as they surrendered to the North Africans 3-2.

Olajide Omotayo and Bode Abiodun failed to pull their weights in the best-of-five match as Egypt won the African men’s team title for a record 13th time.

In the women’s category, it was a clean sweep for the Egyptians as the trio of Hana Goda, Dina Meshref and Mariam Ahodhaby made light work of Edem Offiong, Cecelia Akpan and Funke Oshonaike to win 3-0 and retain the title.

Attention now shifts to individual events as Aruna seeks to improve on his poor showing at the Tokyo Olympics and retain his crown as the African champion.

Oshonaike will also be on the hunt for her fourth individual gong on the continent as she seeks to bow out of the sport on a high.