Youth Olympic Games: Egypt, Nigeria 10 others battle for slots

Africa’s table tennis power houses, Egypt and Nigeria, as well as 10 others, will vie for the four slots available for Africa in the 2018 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) holding in Argentina.

The teams – Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Congo Brazzaville, Congo DRC and Madagascar – will begin hostilities on Sunday at the Palais Des Sport El-Mensah, Tunis.

In the seeding list released by ITTF Africa, Egypt’s duo of Youssef Abdel-Aziz and Marwa Alhodaby are top seeds in the boys and girls event respectively.

In the draw conducted on Saturday April 15 by the tournament’s referee, Tunisia’s Bechir Metoui, the boys have been drawn into three groups of four players with the top players in group one and two getting a bye to the semifinal stage.

The top player in group three and second-placed players in the groups will be drawn for a knockout matches to decide the players that will battle against the top two players in the semifinal round.

After missing out from the 2017 ITTF African Junior Championship, Nigeria’s Azeez Solanke and Tosin Esther Oribamise are the only new faces in Tunis and they are both seeded number two in the boys and girls’ events of the qualifiers.

All the round robin matches will be played on Sunday April 16 while the semifinal matches hold on Monday April 17 with the finalists in the boys and girls event qualifying automatically for the Youth Olympic Games.

Tunisia’s queen of the table, Garci Fadwa will represent the host alongside southpaw, Nathael Hamdoun.

Algeria’s teenage sensation, Abdelbasset Chaichi and Loubna Djedjik, will represent their country.

Also another new faces in the qualifying tournament are Ethiopia’s duo of Kalab Bereba and Tamiru Feven Kinfu who also missed the ITTF African Junior Championship.