Toriola set for final hurray in Glasgow

The ongoing Commonwealth Games in Scotland, is therefore an opportunity for the veteran ping-ponger to end his career on high.At 40 years, Toriola is one of the most experienced athletes, not only in the Nigerian delegation but the whole games. With a Commonwealth Games title won in 2002 Manchester games and six Olympics appearances, Toriola […]

The ongoing Commonwealth Games in Scotland, is therefore an opportunity for the veteran ping-ponger to end his career on high.
At 40 years, Toriola is one of the most experienced athletes, not only in the Nigerian delegation but the whole games. With a Commonwealth Games title won in 2002 Manchester games and six Olympics appearances, Toriola is definitely one of the most successful and experienced Nigerian athletes.
Born September 18 1974 in Ilorin Kwara State, Toriola who is the youngest of nine brothers has dominated Nigerian table tennis since 1995 and etched his name in gold on the continent of Africa beginning from mid-1990s.
It was only in 2008 that Toriola was dethroned African champion by Egyptian Eli Saleh Ahmed but he stormed back to reclaim his position in 2009 and has been holding tenaciously to it.
Renowned for his unusual style of forehand play, which makes him an awkward opponent for many. Despite lacking good footwork has an excellent topspin, which has allowed him to pull off many upsets with top world players.
During his career he has won multiple medals in international singles tournaments. Some of his important achievements are: 4 African Table Tennis Singles Championships (1998, 2002, 2004, 2006) and 2 Doubles Championships (1994,1992), A Commonwealth Singles Championship (2002) in Manchester (United Kingdom), A Commonwealth Doubles Championship and Singles Bronze Medal (2006) in Melbourne (Australia), 4 All-African Games Singles Gold Medals (1995, 1999, 2003, 2007), 4 Doubles Gold Medals (1995, 1999, 2003, 2007), 1 Mixed Doubles Gold Medal (1999, with Bose Kaffo; they also won silver in 2003), and 3 Team Gold Medals (1995, 1999, 2003).
He represented Nigeria at six Summer Olympics debuting at Barcelona 1992. His biggest achievement at the Olympics has been reaching the Men’s Singles 1/8 final at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, beating amongst others former world number 1 Jean-Michel Saive as well as David Zhuang. His 1/16 match-up with Jean-Michel Saive was seen by many as one of the highlights of the Men’s Singles Tournament. He narrowly lost 4-3 to heavily favoured Oh Sang-Eun in the 1/8 final.
Toriola’s fifth Olympic appearance in 2008 made him the first Nigerian man to appear at five Olympics. This feat was achieved four years earlier by sprinter Mary Onyali and also in 2008 by fellow table tennis player Bose Kaffo. By the end of the 2008 Summer Olympics, only thirteen table tennis players worldwide had appeared at least five Olympics. With his participation in 2012 Olympics in London he became the only Nigerian athlete to appear at six Olympics. He therefore joined João N’Tyamba of Angola and Maria Mutola of Mozambique as only third ever African athlete to compete in so many Summer Olympics.
2014 Commonwealth Games provide the vastly experienced France based table tennis player the opportunity to pick his second singles medal at the games. Although age is no longer on his side, the player seen in most quarters as the poster boy of Nigerian table tennis can still boast of tricks which are capable of fetching him another glorious moment.
Fresh from the sterling performance at the just concluded World Team Table Tennis Championship in Japan, the duo of Segun Toriola and Aruna Quadri are now hopeful of medals at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Scotland.
Despite the inability of the team to gain promotion to the elite division, the ranking of the players have improved globally with Toriola climbing to 150, while Quadri who made it to the last 16 of the Spanish Open now rated 153 in the world.
Having played against some of the Commonwealth teams in Japan, the players believe this has given them the opportunity to have an overview of what to expect in Glasgow.
“Playing against some of the Commonwealth teams or not in Japan does not really mean a lot to me because we don’t know whether the teams will come to Glasgow with the same set of players. But I was able to watch some of them in Japan and this I believe has helped us to know what we will be expecting in Glasgow,” the erstwhile African champion said.
On the lessons from Japan, Toriola said: “We have learnt a lot from Japan because we saw the problems and how to fix it. I believe the team will work on it during the camping before Glasgow games.”