Aruna, Olajide begin Olympic quest today

Nigeria’s male table tennis stars, Quadri Aruna and Omotayo Olajide, will be in action on Saturday (today) in the men’s singles round of 64 games at the South Paris Arena, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

Olajide will be the first among the four Nigerian table tennis players in Paris to get involved by taking on Iran’s Noshad Alamiyan at 7:00 pm Nigerian time, while Aruna will take to the table two hours and 15 minutes later against Romania’s Eduard Ionescu.

The 29-year-old Olajide is making his second appearance at the Games, and he has been fired up for the heat of the event.

“My second appearance at the Olympics means a lot to me,” he said before departing for Paris.

“It is not easy to qualify from Africa. We have so many good players in Africa now, and I was able to qualify. Looking at the ranking system, it affected me about a year ago. My ranking dropped significantly, and I wasn’t sure if I would be part of the second pick for Team Nigeria. But thankfully, I reclaimed my spot and qualified for the Rwanda qualifications.

opportunity means a lot to me.”

Aruna, 35, will be making his fourth appearance at the Games with the hope of going past the quarterfinals, which he achieved in Rio in 2016.

“The goals are the same; you know, everyone wants to do well and everyone wants to win a medal, but sometimes it is not all about winning a medal. It’s about giving your best.

“Don’t forget 2016 in Rio; I was very close to winning a medal. I got to the quarterfinals, but four years later, it was not the same performance, but it is what it is. Nothing is really for sure, but this time around, I strongly believe that I will do my best.”

He will be meeting Ionescu for the second time, their first being in the semi-finals of the European Champions League, in which the Romanian defeated the Nigerian 3-2.

In the women’s singles event, Nigerian duo Offiong Edem and Fatimo Bello will also begin their quests on Sunday and Monday, respectively.

Edem will play Brazil’s Bruna Takahashi by 9:00 pm on Sunday, while Bello will play France’s Jia Nan Yuan by 9:00 am on Monday.