Assar joins Quadri on 2017 World Cup train

Nigeria's Aruna Quadri during an international championship in Hungary.

EGYPTIAN Omar Assar has joined Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri as Africa’s representatives to the 2017 ITTF World Cup scheduled to hold next month in Belgium.
It will be the first time Africa has presented two players in the ITTF World Cup, and this came on the heels of the duo’s achievements in the sport.
Quadri, it will be recalled, was the first to qualify for the 20-man global tourney as the winner of the ITTF Africa Cup in July, while Assar who plays for Werder Bremen of Germany, qualified based on the world rankings, as the Egyptian is ranked among the top 40 after the ITTF Asian Cup held in India.
An elated President of the African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF), Khaled El-Salhy described this as a giant stride for the sport on the continent.
“Congratulations to Africa for the first time to have two qualifiers to participate in the ITTF Men’s World Cup. After Aruna Quadri who qualified earlier in July having won the ITTF-Africa Cup, I can confirm to you that Omar Assar also qualified as per world rankings.
“This is a fantastic moment in the history of table tennis in Africa by having two qualifiers among the top 20 players in the World Cup. This is for sure due to the high rankings of our top African players. I am so happy and on behalf of all African table tennis stakeholders, I wish Quadri and Assar the best of luck to represent Africa in the Men’sWorld Cup,” Khaled told ITTFAfrica.com.
Meanwhile, the global championship holds from October 20 to 22 in Liege, Belgium.