Nigeria advances to quarterfinal as Egypt drops

Nigeria continues its march to Championship Division on Thursday with a convincing 3-1 win over Spain in the knockout (round of 16) of the men’s second division at the 2018 ITTF World Team Championships.

However, Egypt men and women teams failed to retain their places in the Championships division as the North Africa lost all their matches in the group as well as suffered defeats in the classification matches against Belarus and Russia to confirm their drop to the second division in 2020.

The Nigerian side led by Aruna Quadri showed their quality against the Spaniard to set up a rematch against Slovakia in the quarterfinal holding on Friday May 4 at the Halmstad Arena, Sweden.

It was Quadri who started against Carlos Machado and knowing what was at stake, the Nigerian dismissed the Spaniard 13-15, 12-10, 11-4, 11-4.

But Segun Toriola fell 11-13, 5-11, 10-12 to Alvaro Robles to put the game at 1-1.

Bode Abiodun restored Nigeria’s lead with a bashing of Jesus Cantaro 12-10, 12-10, 11-6.

To confirm Nigeria’s supremacy over Spain Quadri ended the tie against Robles with 13-11, 3-11, 11-2, 11-7 to give Nigeria a 3-1 win and a berth in the quarterfinal against Slovakia.