ITTFAfrica Cup: Assar dethrones Aruna Quadri as African champion
News & Trends •
omar assar of egypt is the new champion of african table tennis dethroning nigeriasaruna quadri in a thrilling seven games at the ittfafrica cup in nairobi kenya1 the nigerian had rallied from 1-3 down to force the seventh game which assar won 11-81 quadri had defeated another egyptian ahmed saleh in the semi-final for the final battle royale with assar1 assar in his own semi-final defeated saheed idowu a nigerian who plays for congo brazzaville1 egypt also claimed the third place after ahmed ali saleh beat saheed idowu1 nigerias veteran segun toriola claimed the fifth position next in the order of merit came algerias sami kherouf followed by tunisias thameur mamia and ghanas derek abfrefa1 an egyptian dina meshref also won the female championship defeating sarah hanffou of cameroon. nigerias edem offiong won the bronze1 said assar it is unbelievable for me to win this tournament and it came at the right time i needed my confidence after starting the year not too well at the hungarian open and in the german bundesliga. there has been a lot of pressure on me after moving clubs. i think winning this will restore my confidence. i am grateful to my club werder bremen for their support. i also think aruna played very well and he deserved to win as well. this final was a good showcase for africa and i am happy that we1 the win means that omar assar gains an invitation to compete in the liebherr 2018 mens world cup to be staged in october in paris1 it will be the third time that he has competed in the prestigious annual event he was present in 2015 in the swedish west coast city of halmstad and last year in saarbrcken1