The 41-year-old Toriola had his seventh appearance in the current Games, equaling the table tennis record.
This has made him the most capped African Olympian
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The Nigerian star had stopped some big names on his way to the quarter-finals, but reaching the semi-finals became a step too far as he came up against world No.1, Ma Long
She was reacting to Aruna being the first African to reach the quarterfinals of the men’s table tennis singles event at Olympics
Sensationally, just one day short of his 28th birthday, Quadri beat Boll, the former World no.1 and the no.10 seed at the Olympics
This will be the first time any African will be getting to that stage of the competition at the Olympics
“I find it difficult to read the spin on the ball when he defends and I made mistakes; then of course sometimes he will attack
In the August 2016 ranking released by ITTF on Monday, Quadri remained the best player from Africa despite sliding to 40 from 38, while continental rival, Egypt’s Omar Assar, plummeted to 55 from 41
Quadri, whose scintillating performance in his first season in the prestigious French Premier League aided his club, Jura Morez, to avoid relegation, is also rated 27 in the July men’s singles ranking for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil
According to the ranking list released by the Technical Committee of the Commonwealth Table Tennis Federation, Quadri, who has been playing second fiddle to players from Singapore, became the highest rated player among players from the Commonwealth nations
The Blues, who have had a £33.2 million bid for the striker accepted, were rumoured to have sent club officials out to France to conduct a medical despite Batshuayi being on international duty with Belgium at Euro 2016.
“I joined the club just this season and my mind was winning titles for the club because in the last four years they haven’t won any
Quadri, who was seeded number one in the men’s singles of the ITTF Premier Lotto Nigeria Open, could not make it to Lagos for the championship due to club engagement as his French club, Jura Morez, was fighting to escape relegation from the elite European league
Quadri is followed by Africa’s most decorated table tennis player, Segun Toriola, who is the first African athlete to be competing in seven Olympic Games
The third ranked African is Nigeria’s Segun Toriola on 109th position, with 2,022 points, which is a tie with India’s Harmeet Desai.
Quadri, reacting to the feat, told NAN that this was one of the upward movements in line with his aim of making the top 20 in the monthly ranking
With the defeat, the players are now leading their group with eight points from four wins in four matches and they are the unbeaten side in Group F of the tournament
Quadri said he put in all his best into the just-ended competition and he was glad it ended well for him
Nigeria will battle for superiority in Group F against highly-rated India team led by veteran Sharath Achanta, who has always being a turn in the flesh of the Nigerian team as well as Aruna Quadri’s conqueror at the 2015 World Championship in China, Soumyajit Ghosh
In 2015, Quadri featured in more than five ITTF World Circuits, with his best being the Lagos Open where he played in the final against Assar
Quadri, a two-time winner of the Ball Sports Award of the Nigerian Sports Award, was in fine form when he marshaled the resurgence of the Lisbon-based team against his Former club, GD Toledos, at the weekend
In the women category, Egypt defeated Nigeria to retain the women’s team title