Nigeria’s table tennis star, Fatima Bello, has qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics, which will be held in France.
Bello joins the duo of Edem Offiong and Olajide Omotayo, who both qualified for the Games on Friday at the African Olympic qualifying event in Kigali.
Bello, who secured a maiden ticket to the Games, fought hard to defeat Algeria’s Lynda Loughrabi 4-2 in the women’s final of the tournament in Kigali.
The qualified players from the Kigali qualifiers include Nigeria’s trio of Bello, Omotayo, and Edem, while Cameroon’s Sarah Haffou picked her tickets to her third Olympics appearance. Fabio Rakotoarimanana became the first Madagascan table tennis player to qualify for the Olympic Games after picking the second slot in the first stage of the qualifiers. Mehdi Bouloussa of Algeria secured the final slot in the men’s singles.
Bouloussa, who narrowly lost 3-4 to Wassim Essid of Tunisia in the quarterfinal round of the first stage, returned to winning ways to pick the final ticket in the men’s singles of the qualification tournament.
To win the second stage of the qualifiers, Bouloussa defeated Saheed Idowu of Congo Brazzaville (16-14, 11-4, 11-8, 11-4) to pick his maiden ticket to the Olympic Games.
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