Segun Toriola might not be a name that you have heard before but is a name of yet another Nigerian doing us proud both at home and on the international scene.
Just this week, the amazing table tennis star made history by qualifying for his seventh Olympic Games at the ITTF-African Rio 2016 Qualification event held in Khartoum, Sudan.Toriola’s appearance at Rio 2016 will be the most by an African in any sport, writing himself into African sporting history.
According to This Day Live, after achieving the amazing feat, the four time All-African Games champion, who made his Olympic debut back at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games stated:
“I am very excited about this achievement, I never thought I could be playing a seventh Olympic Games in my career. I am honoured that I made history as the African to achieve this feat.
“It was a little difficult for me because I played under a lot of pressure, I was the favourite for this tournament, and I had to be cautious in my games as most of the players wanted to beat me. I ensured I was not too confident in all my matches and play them carefully.”
“I am glad that I made it and I hope now to focus on the preparation for Rio, which is very vital for me!”
As if this was now awesome enough, another Nigerian, Edem Offiong, also returned to the big stage of the sport as she qualified for the games in Brazil.
Edem, the top seed, accounted for Algeria’s Lynda Loghraibi exit with 11-6, 11-7, 12-10, 11-3 result at the qualifier in Khartoum. It is the third time that Edem has qualified for the Olympic Games; she played debuted at Athens in 2004 and four years ago was also part of Team Nigeria in London.
This is what we’re about – excellence, greatness and success.
Viva Naija!