AT HOME FRONT, TABLE TENNIS KING, ARUNA QUADRI GETS ROYAL BLESSINGS FROM ALAAFIN

Nigeria’s topmost table tennis player, Aruna Quadri has gone to his roots to impact on the populace.

He is one of the 10 sports icons chosen by Nigeria Sports Development Fund Inc (NSDFI) to begin community development project in areas they hail from.

Quadri, who is from Oyo town, will have his own programme beginning in January, to commemorate the 80^th birthday of prominent monarch, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, the Alaafin of Oyo.

The top monarch, a keen sports enthusiast, is very appreciative of the gesture of his Germany-based prominent subject.

The Alaafin thanked Quadri, the table tennis prodigy for remembering that he can use his own community development programme to raise new generation of athletes.

According to Jide Fashikun, the Director General of NSDFI, the community development projects are to be executed in areas where the selected icons hailed from.

“For instance, the first one was done by Ruth Ogbeifo Balofin in Offa, who even though from Delta, chose the Kwara town as a token of appreciation to a late medical doctor who treated her free of charge after a career-threatening wrist injury.

“We in the NSDFI will raise the money for the execution while the icon will pick the three schools in the community and we will employ coaches in seven sports to be developed in that community.

“In the case of Aruna, table tennis, being his core discipline will be chosen and six other sports will be added”.

In the delegation to the Palace of the Alaafin was the Executive Director (Technical), Chief Mary Onyali, a retired prominent Nigerian athlete.