Skip to main content

Record breaker, Aruna Quadri, now world’s number 25

Image
By

Aruna Quadri’s star continues to soar. The Nigerian, who barely a month ago became the first African to reach the quarterfinals of the Olympic Games table tennis event, has scored another first by becoming the first African to make the top 30 list in the world.

Quadri yesterday made a huge leap in the ITTF world ranking when he became the first African to be ranked number 25 in the world.

Quadri was one of the stars at the Rio Olympic Games in Brazil after stunning the world to become the first African to play in the last eight of the games. That performance in Rio gave him 152 points, which added to the 2305 points he had in the August ranking, now places him on 2457 points.

The cumulative points gain has now shot the star from the number 40 to among the best 25 players in the world. The latest ranking also list him among the most active players in the world.

Other active players in the recent rating are Brazil’s Hugo Calderano and England’s Paul Drinkhall.

Calderano, who like Quadri became the first player from South America to play in the quarterfinal of the Olympic Games, moved the 54th position in August to 31 in the world, while Drinkhall moved from 58 to 32 in the globe.

Also, a member of the ITTF ‘7’ Club, Nigeria’s Segun Toriola was rewarded for his efforts in Rio as the seventh time Olympian moved from 120 to 106 in the ranking, while Egypt’s Omar Assar remains the continent’s number two. Assar who was edged out in the second round of the Rio Olympic Games by Ukraine’s Lei Kou dropped from 55 to 56 in the world.

Despite dropping to 118 from 110, Egypt’s Dina Meshref remains the top ranked African female player, while Nigeria’s duo of Edem Offiong and Olufunke Oshonaike were not lucky as well, with Offiong dropping from 120 to 129 while Oshonaike dropped from 241 to 251.

In the latest ranking, Olympic and World Champion, China’s Ma Long held on to the zenith of the ranking again as the Asian star and his compatriot – Shiwen Liu remain number one ranked male and female players in the world.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Post

Liverpool have their own miracle, Klopp

By
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has warned his side against complacency as they prepare to cross swords with Maribor in the Champions League on Wednesday, two weeks after pummelling the Slovenians 7-0. Klopp delved into the history books to underline the lesson for the five-time European champions as they try to take a decisive step towards qualification from Group E. In the 1954 World Cup the much-fancied Hungary, featuring Ferenc Puskas and Sandor Kocsis, beat the then West Germany team 8-3 in the group stages, only for the Germans to exact revenge in the final as they came from 2-0 down to win 3-2. Such was the achievement it was made into a 2003 film: “The Miracle of Bern”. Liverpool have their own miracle — when they recovered from 3-0 down to win the Champions League final in 2005 — and Klopp is well aware that football can be unpredictable. “I am from Germany so I know in 1954 we lost against Hungary in the group stage really clear then won the World Cup final,” he sai...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nigerians’ll help us choose their best Presidential candidate - PDP

By
As the competition for the presidential ticket of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party gets stiffer in the run -up to the 2019 general elections , the party has said that it will rely on Nigerians to help the party choose its candidate for the presidential election . The National Publicity Secretary of the party , Mr . Kola Ologbondiyan said the party had heard that many people , including a former Vice -President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar ; Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki ; Sokoto State Governor , Aminu Tambuwal ; his colleague in Gombe State, Ibrahim Dankwambo; and a former Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso , were interested in picking its presidential ticket. He , however , said the decision to rely on Nigerians was premised on the party ’ s determination to avoid past mistakes , impunity and imposition of candidates . According to Ologbondiyan , the party is not backing any of those in line to get its presidential ticket. Others interested in getting the party ’ s ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pope Francis goes to Egypt

By
Pope Francis will Friday leave the Vatican for  Cairo, Egypt at the invitation of both President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and Sheik Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar University, the most important institution of learning in the world of Sunni Islam. The Egyptian President  visited the Vatican in November, 2014, while Tayeb visited last year May. Francis will arrive in Cairo on Friday afternoon and will leave 27 hours later. Expectedly he will meet President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, grand imam Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb and the country’s Coptic Pope Tawadros. The only other visit of a Roman Catholic pope to Egypt was by Pope John Paul II in 2000. He did not meet with leaders at Al-Azhar but, after a brief sojourn in Cairo, traveled to Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, believed to contain the site of the burning bush seen by Moses. Francis’ trip will not just be promoting dialogue among different religions, but among different sects of Christianity as well. In addition to...
Post a Comment
Read more