As one of the experienced players to watch out for as well as the only athlete in table tennis to compete in the seventh Olympics in Rio, Nigeria’s Segun Toriola tops the list of those confirmed by the International Table Tennis Federation for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil.
According to a release by ITTF, the Olympic table tennis event will take place from August 6 to 17, 2016 at RioCentro Pavilion 3.
There will be four gold medals to be handed out: men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s team and women’s team.
Toriola will join 63 others, including compatriot Aruna Quadri, to compete in the men’s singles event of the Olympic Games, while the Africa’s most decorated player will lead the continent’s representative, Nigeria, with other 15 best teams on earth to battle to be crowned Olympic Team Champion.
As the first African to be competing at seventh Olympic Games after qualifying through the 2016 ITTF-Africa Olympic Qualification Tournament, Segun Toriola equaled the record set by Olympic legends Jorgen Persson (Sweden), Jean-Michel Saive (Belgium) and Zoran Primorac (Croatia).
Toriola’s appearance in Rio will also be the most by an African in any sport, writing himself into African sporting history.
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