BY AKINTOYE SAMSON OLALEKAN
After two days of exciting matches, the 2024 ITTF Africa Cup would climax on Tuesday, May 14, with semifinal and final clashes in both the men and women singles categories.
Twenty-eight men and 25 women set out to conquer the field at the BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda. As the action rolled on, many fell by the wayside, overwhelmed by the superior firepower of the eight players going into the final day matchups.
Three Egyptians and a Nigerian will slug it out for passage into the final match for the women’s singles title, while the semifinal battle in the men’s singles will be between Nigeria and Egypt.
Women’s singles top seed Dina Meshref of Egypt, who eliminated Cameroon’s Sarah Hanffou in the quarterfinal, will face a familiar foe in Nigeria’s Offiong Edem in the first semifinal match of the day.
The second semifinal tie will be a battle between defending champion Hana Goda of Egypt and her compatriot, Mariam Alhodaby.
In the absence of defending champion Omar Assar of Egypt due to a recurring knee injury, a new king of African table tennis will be crowned in Kigali.
In the first semifinal, the top seed in the men’s singles, Quadri Aruna of Nigeria, will take on Egyptian southpaw Youssef Abdel-Aziz, who staged a scintillating comeback in the quarterfinal to edge out the number two seed, Algeria’s Mehdi Bouloussa.
In the second semifinal match of the men’s singles, Egypt’s Mohamed El-Beiali will clash with 2019 African Games champion, Olajide Omotayo of Nigeria.
The final matches of both categories will take place later in the day to bring to a fitting end this star-studded continental tournament, which serves as a qualifier for the 2025 ITTF World Cup.
