Three Egyptians and a Nigerian will slug it out for passage into the final match for the women's singles title, while the semifinal battle in the men's singles will be between Nigeria and Egypt.
Nigerian table tennis legend Segun Toriola, now the national team's head coach, has his sights set firmly on the future.
Toriola, while speaking at the ongoing 2024 ITTF Africa Cup event in Rwanda, emphasised the importance of nurturing young talent and giving back to the sport that brought him so much success.
"Before I retired," Coach Toriola shared, "I was thinking that I don't want to do what all the ex-players do. After they retire, they move away from the game and that is why the game is not improving."
This observation fueled Toriola's decision to remain actively involved in table tennis, even after hanging up his paddle.
"I just decided that when I retire I will be; even if I'm not a coach, I will still be around the game," he explained.
This dedication to the sport translates into a clear vision for his coaching role. "This is what I want when I retire from playing and I want to give something back to table tennis. The most important thing to me is the development of the game, it's going to start from the youth; train them, don't discourage them so that they can be champions of Africa and the world."
Coach Toriola sees immense potential in both the young men and women of Nigerian table tennis. "We have a lot of chances and the female, too we have a lot of chances in the female team because in Egypt they already qualified," he stated.
While acknowledging the possibility that some players might not qualify for singles tournaments, he remains optimistic. "If they don't qualify in the singles then they will do it in ranking," he explained, "But the rule is that they have to play."
Action time
Meanwhile, after two days of exciting matches, the 2024 ITTF Africa Cup will climax on Tuesday, 14 May with semifinal and final clashes in both the men's and women's singles categories
Twenty-eight men and 25 women set out to conquer the field at the BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda. As the action rolled on, many fell by the wayside, overwhelmed by the superior firepower of the eight players going into the final-day matchups.
Three Egyptians and a Nigerian will slug it out for passage into the final match for the women's singles title, while the semifinal battle in the men's singles will be between Nigeria and Egypt.
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Women's singles top seed Dina Meshref of Egypt, who eliminated Cameroon's Sarah Hanffou in the quarterfinal, will face a familiar foe in Nigeria's Offiong Edem in the first semifinal match.
The second semifinal tie will be a battle between defending champion Hana Goda of Egypt and her compatriot, Mariam Alhodaby.
In the absence of defending champion Omar Assar of Egypt due to a recurring knee injury, a new king of African table tennis will be crowned in Kigali.
In the first semifinal, the top seed in the men's singles, Quadri Aruna of Nigeria, will take on Egyptian southpaw Youssef Abdel-Aziz, who staged a scintillating comeback in the quarterfinal to edge out the number two seed, Algeria's Mehdi Bouloussa.
In the second semifinal match of the men's singles, Egypt's Mohamed El-Beiali will clash with 2019 African Games champion, Olajide Omotayo of Nigeria.
The final matches of both categories will take place later in the day to bring to a fitting end this star-studded continental tournament, which serves as a qualifier for the 2025 ITTF World Cup.
