ITTF Championships: Aruna, Bello hit semifinal

[FILES] Quadri Aruna

Top seed, Quadri Aruna, yesterday, booked a place in tomorrow’s semi-finals of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) African Cup championship, held at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim Balogun Stadium. The competition will end today.

Aruna, who dismissed Morocco’s Aboubaker Bourass 4-0, showed how ready he was for this year’s ITTF African Cup in the men’s category.

However, Olajide Omotayo lost to Egypt’s Ahmed Saleh 3-2 in a keenly contested match.

In the women’s class, Edo 2020 National Sports Festival gold medalist, Fatimo Bello, yesterday created an upset when she humbled veteran, Offiong Edem, 4-3 in an interesting match up to the delights of the Lagos fans who trooped in watch the epic battle.

The match between Egypt’s Mariam Alhodaby and Cameroun’s Sarah Hanffou ended in favour of the Egyptian, who capaitalised on the weakness of her opponent to also advanced to the semi-final stage of the competition.

Meanwhile, Bello, who has been dominating the sport in the country, told The Guardian before her game against Edem that she believes she can win the championship.

“I believe I can win the championship, given the hard work that I have out in preparing for this championship. Nothing is impossible as far as winning the table tennis championship in Lagos is concerned,” the winner of the ITTF regional championship said.

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