LAGOS, June 1 (Xinhua) -- The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) on Tuesday confirmed the eventual qualification of Nigeria's table tennis star, Quadri Aruna, for the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan.
In a letter addressed to the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) and the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), Gabor Felegyi, the ITTF competition director, said Aruna, who competed for Nigeria at the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2016 Summer Olympics, is expected to join 85 others across the globe to compete in the men's singles event at Tokyo Olympic Games next month.
"It is with great pleasure, I advise the qualification of Quadri Aruna to compete in the table tennis Men's Singles event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, on the basis of World Ranking allocation according to the June 2021 ITTF Olympic Qualification Ranking," Felegyi said in the letter made available to Xinhua in Lagos, Nigeria's economic hub.
He added that the NOC is expected to confirm Aruna's participation on or before June 16.
With this development, Aruna will be making his third appearance at the Olympic Games. It was at Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil that Arena stunned the world with his performance as the first African to reach the quarterfinal after edging out some of the best players in the world including former world number one, Timo Boll of Germany before losing to the eventual winner, Ma Long of China in the quarterfinal.
Already 64 players have so far been confirmed for the men's singles event while the remaining six slots are expected to be allocated as wildcards. Enditem
