For the first time in all their meetings, Madagascar defeated Nigeria 3-1 in a major tournament and this would forever be cherished by the trio of Jonathan Nativel, Fabio Rakotoarimanana and Antoine Razafinarivo.
The Madagascan team defeated the duo of Olajide Omotayo and Bode Abiodun 3-1 at the 2024 ITTF World Team Championships taking place in Busan, South Korea.
Despite the defeat of Razafinarivo 1-3 by Omotayo in the first game, Rakotoarimanana became the star player for Madagascar after beating Omotayo and Abiodun to hand Nigeria’s third defeat of the tournament.
The win has now put Madagascar in vantage position to be ranked higher than Nigeria at the end of the tournament on February 25.
A delighted Rakotoarimanana said after the match, “I think we had an edge over Nigeria because of the absence of Aruna and his absence really gave us confidence going into the match. I had lost to Omotayo at the last African Championships in Tunisia, but this time around I was able to take my revenge against him. We are very happy that we defeated Nigeria for the first time in a major tournament and this has boosted our confidence going into the next match against Japan,” Rakotoarimanana said.