Aruna Quadri is world’s 29th best

Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri retains his top place in Africa as the highest ranked player in the continent after the 2014 ITTF Star Player moved to 29th place in the April ITTF ranking released at the weekend.

Despite being inactive in the ITTF World Tour in the last one month, Quadri with 2393 points moved by one step to occupy 29th place in the world.

His continental rival, Egypt’s Omar Assar however, dropped from 36 to 37 in the world.

Fortune also smiled on former African Champion and the first African athlete to be competing in seven Olympic Games, Segun Toriola improved his world rating from 117 to 109, while Portugal-based Bode Abiodun also gained more points to improve from 185 to 179.

In the women ranking, Egypt’s Dina Meshref remains the best rated player from the continent despite dropping from 98 to 97.

The highest ranked Nigeria female player in the ranking is Edem Offiong, who improved her ranking from 242 to 230, while Olufunke Oshonaike who was ranked 235 in March has been taken off the world ranking for her inactivity in the last six months.

In the Olympic Team ranking, Nigeria remains dominance in the men division despite dropping from 25 to 26, the West Africa giant are still ahead of Egypt who are ranked 32.

But the North African are far ahead of the Nigeria in the women team rating after occupying 31 while Nigeria is placing 40.

To decide the team that will represent the continent in the team event of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Nigeria and Egypt will have to wait for the May ranking to know their fate. But as it is Nigeria has an edge over Egypt in the men to qualify while Egypt has an upper hand over Nigeria in the women division.