Nigeria’s rising Table Tennis star Esther Oribamise has booked her place at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games after the African Continental Qualification tournament ended yesterday at the Palais Des Sport El-Mensah in Tunis,Tunisia.

•Oribamise

Despite missing out on participation at the recent 2017 ITTF African Junior and Cadet Championships, Oribamise was in terrific form at the Continental Qualification event and the Nigerian representative deservedly sealed her spot at next year’s Youth Olympic Games.

Victory over Morocco’s Ines Outolla in the last four (11-4, 11-9, 11-7, 11-1) guaranteed a top two finish in the Girls’ Singles for Esther Oribamise, but the Nigerian contestant wasn’t done there with one more match still to be played.

Marwa Alhodaby awaited Esther Oribamise in the final with the Egyptian having secured qualification following her success against Tunisia’s Fadwa Garci in the penultimate round (11-9, 13-11, 11-9, 11-9).

However, despite her best efforts Marwa Alhodaby proved unable to finish her Tunis campaign with a win as Nigeria’s Esther Oribamise squeezed over the finish line with a 4-3 victory (11-6, 11-9, 9-11, 12-10, 8-11, 7-11, 13-11) to claim top spot in the competition.

“I think I was ready for her but I could not just fathom what happened when I was leading 3-1 in games and 4-1 in points in the fifth game only to lose the game. Even in the seventh game, I was leading 8-2 and she caught up with me at 9-9, but I was calm to finish the match at 13-11. This victory and qualification for the Youth Olympic Games means a lot to me particularly after missing the ITTF African Junior and Cadet Championships. I have proved a point to my compatriots that the Egyptians are beatable and they just need to believe in themselves”, Esther Oribamise