The only medal missing on the continental medal tray of Quadri Aruna is the men’s singles title at the African Games.
Aruna who is Africa’s highest ranked player in the world and considered as the most successful African table tennis player in recent times will be heading to his fourth African Games in Accra, Ghana with the sole aim of breaking the jinx of missing the men’s singles title twice in the last two editions.
When he made his debut at the African Games in 2011 at Maputo, Mozambique, Aruna worked his way to the semifinal where he finished fourth in the men’s singles.
But at the 2015 edition in Brazzaville, the world number 12 improved his medal colour to silver after losing to Omar Assar in a close contest that ended 4-3 in favour of the Egyptian.
Aruna again showed his class at the 2019 edition in Rabat, Morocco when he single-handedly stopped Omar Assar from reclaiming the title in the semifinal stage only to lose the title to his compatriot – Olajide Omotayo in the final.
Despite not under any pressure to win the title, but it is on record that Aruna is still in search of the medal that has been claimed four consecutive times by legendary Segun Toriola who holds the record as the only player in the continent to have won the men’s singles title consecutively four times (1995, 1999, 2003 and 2007) in the history of the African Games.