Bello, Bouloussa pick up final African Olympics table tennis tickets

Algeria's Mehdi Bouloussa and Nigeria's Fatimo Bello qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympics on Saturday by grabbing the final two African tickets at the African Table Tennis Olympic Qualification Tournament at BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda.

Both players picked up their tickets to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games following their triumph in the second stage of the qualifying championships.

Bello defeated Algeria’s Lynda Loghraibi 4-2 (11-5, 11-7, 11-8, 5-11, 9-11, 11-9) to atone for her disappointment in the first stage of the qualifying, and the Nigerian will be making her debut at the Olympic Games in Paris.

For being crowned winner in the women’s singles event at the second stage of qualifiers, Fatimo Bello increased the number of Nigerian players heading to Paris to three after Olajide Omotayo and Offiong Edem secured their tickets at the first stage of the qualifiers on Friday, 17 May.

Algeria’s Mehdi Bouloussa, who narrowly lost 3-4 to Wassim Essid of Tunisia in the quarterfinal round of the first stage, returned to winning ways to pick the final ticket in the men’s singles of the qualification tournament.

To win the second stage of the qualifiers, Bouloussa defeated Saheed Idowu of Congo Brazzaville. (16-14, 11-4, 11-8, 11-4) to pick his maiden ticket to the Olympic Games.

A delighted Bouloussa described his qualification as the result of years of hard work.

Over 50 players from 14 countries featured in the three-day African Qualification Tournament hosted by the Rwanda Table Tennis Federation (RTTF).