Lagos – The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) on Wednesday applauded the feat by Nigeria’s Segun Toriola who will be playing his seventh Olympic Games in Rio.
ITTF in a statement described Toriola as one of the Africa’s most decorated athletes.
It noted that Sweden’s Jorgen Persson, Croatia’s Zoran Primorac and Belgium’s Jean-Michel Saive had achieved similar feat in seven Olympic Games in the past.
“Nigeria’s Toriola will join the trio, as he makes his 7th Olympic appearance in Rio,’’ the statement said.
It added that the best African performer at the Olympic Games was Toriola who’s outing at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in China became the reference globally.
“Toriola’s biggest achievement at the Olympic Games has been reaching the Men’s Singles 1/16 final at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, beating among others former world number 1 Jean-Michel Saive as well as David Zhuang.
“His 1/32 match-up with Jean-Michel Saive was seen by many as one of the highlights of the Men’s Singles Tournament.
“He narrowly lost 4-3 to heavily favoured Oh Sang-Eun in the 1/16 final,’’ it said.
According to the statement, from records of table tennis at the Olympic Games, no African player or team has won a medal.
“Nigeria is among the 15 countries that have featured in the table tennis event of the Olympic Games since 1988 when table tennis became a medal hauling event at the Games.
“Others are Sweden, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Japan, Korea Republic, Poland and the U.S.
“Nigeria alongside Canada, China, India, Japan, Korea Republic and the U.S will be participating in both male and female categories of table tennis,’’ the statement said.
It said that at the Games, no final had gone the full seven games distance since matches became best of seven.
ITTF also said that no final had ever been won by the minimum 2 points margin in the final game which includes best of 7 and 5 and 3.
It noted that both Men’s and Women’s Team event finals have never gone beyond 3-0 match score.
“The fastest Olympic table tennis final was played by China’s Zhang Yining against North Korea’s Kim Hyang Mi in Athens 2004. Zhang beat Kim 11-8, 11-7, 11-2, 11-2 (63 points).
“The 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games had no playoff match for bronze; in all events two players/pairs were awarded bronze medals.’’ (NAN)