African Games: Aruna and Edem make the podium for Team Nigeria

 Nigeria won two medals on Tuesday at the 13th African Games in Accra, Ghana, after Aruna Quadri fell 4-3 to Egypt’s Omar Assar in the final of the men’s table tennis singles event.

The contest between the two rivals lived up to expectations as they thrilled the audience with breathtaking skills.

Assar took the first set 11-8, while Quadri bounced back to claim the second and third 11-2, 11-2.

The Egyptian clinched the fourth set 11-7 before Aruna won the fifth set 11-9.

Assar then won the last two sets 11-9, 11-0 to claim the gold medal.

Earlier, Offiong Edem had won Nigeria’s first medal.

Edem clinched the bronze medal in the women’s singles event.

The Spain-based star played her best matches in the last 16 and quarterfinal when she defeated the Alhodaby twins – Marwa and Mariam to join the league of medalists in the women’s singles of the games.

Set up against defending champion Dina Meshref of Egypt in the semifinal, Edem caved in with a 4-0 defeat to settle for a bronze medal just like she did at the 2019 edition in Rabat, Morocco.

“I am so happy that we were able to attend the last World Championships in Korea and this helped my game a lot. I want to thank the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) for their support and I believe attending such a competition helped me personally here in Ghana. The Egyptians are ahead of us because they attend more competitions than us and we hope we can get such support to return to the top of the game in Africa,” she said.