Nigeria, Egypt Name Table Tennis Teams For All African Games

The table tennis superpowers in Africa – Nigeria and Egypt have named strong team for the 2015 Africa Games holding in Congo Brazzaville.

The two teams named a nine-man contingent that will compete in the seven events to be competed for the games.

For Nigeria, two of Africa’s most respected stars, Segun Toriola and Olufunke Oshonaike will lead Nigeria’s nine-man team to the 2015 African Games holding in Congo Brazzaville.

Segun Toriola

Toriola, who is Africa’s most decorated player and Oshonaike will both be making their seventh appearance at the game since their debut at Cairo 1991 in Egypt.

According to the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) the nine-man team was selected based on their ranking coupled with series of trails organized in Lagos in the last three weeks.

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Toriola is the most successful player in the history of African Games having won the men’s singles title four consecutive times in 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2007.

Like Toriola, Oshonaike is also the most successful female player in the history of the games having claimed the women’s singles title twice in 1999 and 2003 while she was runner’s up in 1991 and 2011 will be making her seventh appearance at the multi-sports championships.

Toriola, a six-time Olympian will be joined in the men’s team by 2014 ITTF Star Player, Aruna Quadri, Bode Abiodun, Seun Ajetunmobi and Ojo Onaolapo.

Besides Quadri and Ajetunmobi who had featured at the previous African Games, Abiodun and Onaolapo will be making their debut at the games

Oshonaike will spearhead the female team which include African Games women’s singles defending champion, Edem Offiong, Cecilia Otu-Akpan and Rasheedat Ogundele.

Also, Offiong and Otu-Akpan will be making their fourth appearance at the games having debuted at Abuja 2003 in Nigeria. The duo is also the women’s doubles defending champions having retained the title they won in Algiers 2007 at the 2011 edition in Mozambique.

Ogundele, who is the only debutant in the female team returned to the national team having had a stint with the team to various continental and international tournaments.

For the Egyptian team, the continent highest ranked male and female players, Omar Assar and Dina Meshref will lead the North African team to the sports fiesta in the Central African nation come September.

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Assar, 24, is the men’s singles defending champion and he will joined by veterans – El-Sayed Lashin and Ahmed Saleh as well as Mohammed El-Beiali and Khaled Assar.

Omar Assar is the first Egyptian to halt Nigeria’s dominance of the men’s singles in 2011 and he will be spearheading the team to this year’s edition having won two continental titles this year including ITTF World Tour – Lagos Open.

Lashin and Saleh are men’s doubles defending champion and despite their success in Africa, the duo is yet to win the men’s singles title at the games. El-Beiali and Khaled Assar will also be making their debut at the games.

Meshref who can be regarded as the most successful African female table tennis player in 2015 after claiming two continental titles will be aiming to break the jinx as no Egyptian has won the women’s singles title at the games.

Aside Meshref, Nadeen El-Dawlatly who returned to full action at the 2015 ITTF Africa Senior Cup in Cameroon after months of absence due to knee injury will also be part of the four-man female team to Brazzaville. Debutant, Yossra Helmy and Farah Abdel-Aziz will also be part of the team.

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