Table / Tennis: Offiong, Omatayo qualify for France 2024 Olympic Games
Nigeria’s top seeds, Olajide Omotayo and Offiong Edem have qualified for the 2024 Olympic Table Tennis tournament after sterling performances in the African qualifying tournament.
Edem Offiong became the first Nigerian to qualify for the Paris games after a resilient 4-2 victory over Tunisia’s Fadwa Garci in the ladies semi-finals of the qualifiers at the largest indoor arena in East Africa, BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda’s largest city and Capital.
The 37 year old former African champion, Offiong will become a 5-time Olympian when the games serves off in July.
In the men’s event, another Nigerian Olajide Omotayo secured his ticket to Paris with a dominant 4-0 win over Congo-Brazzaville’s Saheed Idowu in the semis.
This would be Omotayo’s 2nd appearance at the Olympics. The African qualifiers is being played in three stages.
The first stage features preliminary groups of three or four players each.
The winners and runners-up from these groups will advance to the second stage, which consists a direct knockout system.
The two finalists of the second stage will automatically qualify for Paris, while the losers of the semi-finals in the third stage will play a direct knockout to determine the third qualifier for the Olympics.
The competition concludes on Saturday, 18 May, 2024.
