by Olalekan Okusan, ITTF-Africa Press Officer

The aim for the young man, based in France, is to gain a place on the podium.

He explained:

“My goal in this competition is to arrive at least in the quarter-finals and if possible win a medal. As a team, we have a young team making progress; we will try to give everything to get a medal.

Individually, I hope to reach the quarter-finals at the African Championships or even better. However, given the number of good players in this competition, playing good matches and having more wins than losses, finishing the tournament positively will bring me great joy.

In the Men’s Singles event, I strongly believe that Quadri Aruna is likely to win the title but there are still some good players in the Egyptian side and also from Nigeria. In the team event, the favourites are Nigeria and Egypt.

Countries like Nigeria and Egypt will continue to dominate because they have more follow-up tournaments and funding to get the maximum of professional play outside Africa; they promote their players and win titles.

I think I’m ready for this competition because I train all the week. I trust myself hoping to have a good competition.

My best performance on the African level is to have beaten Egypt’s Aly Ghallab, who was the reigning African Under 21 champion, knowing that he was higher ranked than me at African and world level.

Personally, my goal is to have a good competition and to win a medal will be a rewarded for my work.”