Quadri urged to look beyond German Open setback
Table tennis stakeholders have urged Nigeria’s number one player, Quadri Aruna, to look beyond the setback of crashing out in the opening round at the ongoing ITTF World Tour.
The stakeholders, in separate interviews, said in Abuja that Aruna should see it as one of the challenges involved in the sport.
Aruna’s exit from the competition was attributed to his narrow loss to unknown Hungarian, Bence Majoros, in the preliminary round.
After putting the disappointing 2-4 loss to the Hungarian behind him, Quadri restored his pride with a convincing 4-1 win over Czech Republic’s Michal Obeslo.
Unfortunately, the victory could not help him to the knockout stage of the preliminary round.
In his comments, Anderson Bankole, a board member of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), urged Aruna to see the development as a lesson.
He urged him to go back and correct the lapses which made him lose his first match.
“I want him to snap out of this as quickly as possible and face other challenges ahead. This is one of those things an athlete faces.
“A loss doesn’t mean he is not good, or that he didn’t prepare well. It only means he’s still got a lot of work to do on himself.
“I must say that Aruna is a fantastic player and I believe in his abilities. He has done the country and himself proud so many times. He is the reason why Nigerian table tennis is being talked about in the last couple of years,” Bankole said.
Also, Kazeem Makanjuola, who plies his trade with Marcozzi Table Tennis Club of Italy, urged him to put more efforts into his training.
Makanjuola said that table tennis was a game of ups and downs and victory was never guaranteed at all times. (NAN)