Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri and Egypt’s Dina Meshref will represent Africa at the 2016 ITTF World Cups after the duo emerged champions at the ITTF Africa Top 16 Cup in Khartoum, Sudan.
To become the new continent champion, Aruna Quadri avenged the defeat he suffered in the hands of Egypt’s Omar Assar in 2015 when he walloped the Egyptian 4-1 to lift the trophy while Dina Meshref who has been training in Singapore in the last three months defeated Congo Brazzaville’s Han Xing by the same margin to be victorious in the women event.
Just like it happened in 2014 in Lagos when Quadri and Meshref claimed the titles, it occurred again in Sudan as both became the new champions of Africa.
With this win, Quadri will return to Germany where he had his resurgence in 2014 when the 2016 edition of the ITTF World Cup holds.
For the women event, Meshref will want to better her first round exit at the 2015 edition of the World Cup when this year’s event holds in a yet-to-be decided venue.
For the third time, Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri will be representing Africa at the ITTF World Cup after the 2014 ITTF Star Player defeated his arch-rival, Egypt’s Omar Assar 4-1 to win the 2016 ITTF Africa Top 16 Cup in Sudan.
Quadri, who has been playing second fiddle to the Egyptian in their four last meetings, was in fine form in the final of the men’s singles with a 11-8, 8-11, 7-11, 6-11, 9-11 victory over the North African. This win will make it the third time Quadri would be participating in the ITTF World Cup. His maiden outing was in 2009 in Russia while in 2014 in Dusseldorf, Germany he stunned the world with his performance which shot him to the top 30 in the global ranking.
The win over Assar will surely rub off on the world ranking of Quadri who is currently rated 37 while Assar is 32.
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