African Table Tennis: Nigeria’s Oshonaike emerges champion in Morocco

Nigeria’s Olufunke Oshonaike has emerged the new African women’s single Table Tennis champion.

The 42-year-old, who last won the coveted African title 16 years ago, overpowered her Egyptian opponent on Sunday to win Nigeria’s second title at the ongoing African Championships in Morocco.

Oshonaike beat Dina Meshref 4-2 in a keenly contested final game.

Before now, Aruna Quadri and Segun Toriola had won the men’s doubles title for Nigeria at the ITTF Africa Senior Championships. Pairing for the first time in a major championship, they conquered Egyptian teams to hold on to the title won in 2015 by Quadri and Kazeem Makanjuola.

The Nigerian duo defeated ageing Egyptians, El-Sayed Lashin and Ahmed Saleh 4-2, to give Nigeria its first gold medal in the one-week championship.

Nigeria is still in the hunt for one more medals as Aruna Quadri will be playing in the men’s singles final later today.

He will be keen to emulate the success of Oshonaike.