When its maiden attempt at qualifying for table tennis team event of the Olympic Games failed to materialise in Portugal, Team Nigeria has shifted attention to the African Olympics qualifying tournament holding next month in Tunis, Tunisia.
Being the final qualifying window for African teams and players to compete at Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the 54 members of the African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF) excluding Egypt will converge on Tunis in February 27 to 29 for the qualifying tournament in singles and mixed doubles events.
After losing the sole continental slot to Egypt at the 2019 African Games, Nigeria for the first time competed at the World Team qualifying tournament in Gondomar, Portugal, but the team narrowly lost to Poland in the second round of the tournament to miss out leaving Egypt as the only African team competing in the team event of Tokyo 2020.
According to the prospectus of the tournament in Tunisia, two players each in men and women from each African Association apart from Egypt, were expected to compete in the singles while one pair from each country including Egypt will compete for the continent’s sole slot in mixed doubles event.