Sports

Heroic: Toriola qualifies for 7th Olympics

Published

8 years ago

February 18, 2016

In from Ripples Nigeria

Former Africa’s number one table tennis player, Segun Toriola, on Thursday in Sudan, made history to become the first African to qualify for seven consecutive Olympic Games when he won the ITTF-African Rio 2016 qualification. Offiong Edem also won the women’s singles event to book her place at the games.

Toriola defeated Mawussi Agbetoglo of Togo by four straight win of 11-7, 12-10, 11-9, 11-6 to get to the final and picked up one of the two available Rio 2016 tickets. He then put the icing on the cake with a 4-0 win over Nigeria – born Congo Brazzaville ping ponger, Saka Suraju in the final.

Toriola, who first appeared at the Barcelona 1992 Olympics, joins table tennis legends, Jean-Michel Saive of Belgium, Jorgen Persson of Sweden and Zoran Primorac of Croatia in an elite group of players who have played at seven Olympic Games.

After beating Loghraibi Lynda of Algeria by four straight set of 11-6, 11- 7, 12- 10, 11- 3 in the semifinal, Edem strolled to another 4-0 win over Tunisia’s Saidani Safa in the final.

“It was a little difficult for me because I played under a lot of pressure, I was the favourite for this tournament and I had to be cautious in my matches as most of the players wanted to beat me”, said Toriola.

“I ensured I was not too confident in all my matches and played them carefully; I am glad that I made it and I hope now to focus on the preparation for Rio, which is very vital for me”, an elated Toriola said.

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