Aruna Quadri makes history as the first African to reach Olympic table tennis quarterfinal

Hold your head high Aruna Quadri, you are hard work redefined, you are blistering consistency, you are Viva Naija, hold your head high!

Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri emerged as the first African ever to make it to the quarter finals of the men’s single table tennis event at the Olympics, Monday night. 

Quadri, who had shone bright as a ping-pong maester in the past 2 years so consistently, beat his German opponent, Boll Timo, 4-2 to seal a historic berth in the quarter finals of men’s single table tennis event.

Before Monday’s win, Quadri was only at par with legend, Segun Toriola, who at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in China made it to the fourth round of the championship.

After an awesome display on Sunday in which Quadri caused a major upset in Round 3; beating Chinese Taipei’s Chuang Chih-Yuan 4-0 , many knew it would be suicidal to bet against the Nigerian who seem to have hit his peak at the right time at the Olympics.

In 10 minutes, Quadri blew away his German opponent; winning the first three sets 12-10 12-10, 12-5.

However, German star, Boll who is ranked number 10 in Rio, halted Quadri’s run as he took the 4th set and 5th set 11-3, 11-5.

In the closely contested final set, Quadri held his nerve to win 11-9 and thus enter into the history books as the first African table tennis player to go this far.