Nigeria men’s table tennis star to the just concluded Rio Olympic Games, Aruna Quadri, has been included in the 20-man list for the Liebherr 2016 ITTF Men’s World Cup to be held in Saarbrucken, Germany on 1-3 October 2016.
According to a release by ITTF, all 20 players invited to the event in Germany competed at Rio 2016, and also earned their places at the world showpiece through Continental Cup qualification events throughout 2016, plus the current World Champion and a wildcard.
Also invited are China’s newly crowned Olympic Champion and Men’s World Cup defending Champion, MA Long; 2013 Champion XU Xin of China, and three time champion – 40-year-old Vladimir SAMSONOV from Belarus.
World number five, Dimitrij Ovtcharov, from Germany will lead the local German contingent in Saarbrucken, along with Bastin Steger also from Germany, the man with whom he won the Rio 2016 team bronze.
Quadri got to the quarter-finals in Rio before losing in four straight sets to Ma Long.
The full list of invited players for the Liebherr 2016 Men’s World Cup:
Ma Long (China) – World Champion
Aruna Quadri (Nigeria) – African Cup Winner
Xu Xin (China) – Asian Cup Winner
Hugo Calderano(Brazil) – Latin American Cup Winner
Yijun Feng (USA) – North American Cup Winner
David Powell (Australia) – Oceania Cup Winner
Dimitrij Ovtcharov(Germany) – European Cup Winner
Chun Ting Wong (Hong Kong) – Asian Cup 3rd place (2nd Qualifier)
Ning Gao(Singapore) – Asian Cup 4th place (3rd Qualifier)
Joao Monteiro (Portugal) – European Cup 2nd place (2nd Qualifier)
Alexander Shibaev(Russia) – European Cup 3rd place (3rd Qualifier)
Jun Mizutani (Japan) – Asian Cup 5th place
Sangsu Lee (Korea) – Asian Cup 6th place
KARLSSON Kristian Karlsson (Sweden) – European Cup 4th place
Vladimir Samsonov (Belarus) – European Cup 5th place
Stefan Fegerl (Austria) – European Cup 6th place
Tiago Apolonia(Portugal) – European Cup 7th place
Bastian Steger (Germany) – European Cup 8th place
Simon Gauzy(France) – European Cup 9th place
Youngsik Jeoung (Korea) – Wildcard
