Quadri Aruna has reclaimed the top spot for African players in the latest world table tennis rankings released on Tuesday by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). The Nigerian star jumped up to number 17 globally after winning the ITTF Africa Cup earlier this month.
Aruna had briefly lost his number one African ranking to Egypt’s Omar Assar over the past couple of months. However, Assar dropped down to number 22 in the world after losing valuable points from his performance at the 2023 World Championships.
While Assar’s points expired, Aruna maintained his point total, allowing him to move back ahead of Assar and reclaim his place as the highest-ranked African player.
Another Egyptian, Mohamed El-Beiali, is now the third-highest ranked African at 49th globally after being the runner-up to Aruna at the Africa Cup.
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No other Nigerian is in the top 100 in the world with Olajide Omotayo dropping two places to 102nd position, while Bode Abiodun dropped 10 places to 168th.
Offiong Edem is Nigeria’s highest ranked female player, moving up one place to 109th in the world, while Fatimo Bello who recently qualified for her first Olympics dropped 31 places to 160th in the world. Hope Uduak is Nigeria’s third-best player, rising five places to 172nd in the world.
Egypt’s Dina Meshref remained the top African at 24th in the world rankings, just ahead of her countryman Hana Goda at 31st.
With the Olympics coming up in Paris in 2024, African players are running out of time to accumulate ranking points and qualify. The final Olympic qualification deadline is June 11th based on these world rankings.
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