Rio Olympics: Aruna Quadri sets African record, qualifies for quarter final

Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri Monday night emerged as the first African ever to make it to the quarter finals of the men’s single table tennis event at the Olympics.

Quadri, in a thrilling encounter, beat his German opponent, Boll Timo, 4-2 to seal a historic berth in the quarter finals of men’s single table tennis event.

Before Monday’s win, Quadri was only at par with legend, Segun Toriola, who at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in China made it to the fourth round of the championship.

After an awesome display on Sunday in which Quadri caused a major upset in Round 3; beating Chinese Taipei’s Chuang Chih-Yuan 4-0 , many knew it would be suicidal to bet against the Nigerian who seem to have hit his peak at the right time at the Olympics.

In 10 minutes, Quadri blew away his German opponent; winning the first three sets 12-10 12-10, 12-5.

However, German star, Boll who is ranked number 10 in Rio, halted Quadri’s run as he took the 4th set and 5th set 11-3, 11-5.

In the keenly contested 6th set, Quadri held his nerve to win 11-9 and thus enter into the history books as the first African table tennis player to go this far.