Nigerian players taking part in this month’s International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Championships holding in China have made the list of teams listed in the doubles events of the tournament.
In the men’s singles seeding list, Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri is the only player listed among the 64 players seeded for the championship and as African champion, Quadri and Kazeem Makanjuola have been seeded number 11 in the men’s doubles seeding released on Tuesday by the world table tenis ruling body.
Also from Africa, Egyptian players led by the Assar brother made the list of seeding as well as the pair of Mohammed El-Beiali and El-Sayed Lashin.
In the women’s doubles, Egypt and Congo Brazzaville made the top 32 seeded teams while in the mixed doubles Nigerian players made the list.
The pair of Quadri and Edem Offiong as well as their compatriots – Segun Toriola and Funke Oshonaike made the list of 32 pairs seeded for the event.
Meanwhile defending champion in the men’s doubles’ Chinese Taipei’s Chen Chien-An and Chuang Chih-Yuan have been seeded number four even as they defend the title they won in Paris in 2013.
The seeded position suggests they are major gold medal contenders but arguably they are not the statistical favourites; that accolade belongs to their colleagues, Chiang Hung-Chieh and Huang Sheng-Sheng, they are the top seeds.
Furthermore, like Chen Chien-Anand Chuang Chih-Yuan, they are also World champions; they won in 2005 in the Austrian city of Linz at the World Junior Championships.
Retaining the title, that has been achieved in the past with the record of Hungary’s Victor Barna and Miklos Szabados never likely to be threatened; they won on no less than six occasions as a partnership; four times retaining the crown. Any comparison with that era is unfair; in the era of the Hungarian stars of yesteryear, the event was held annually.
However, no partnership has ever progressed from being a World Junior champions in the Boys’ Doubles, Girls’ Doubles or Mixed Doubles events to achieving the same in the senior version.
