Olufunke OSHONAIKE (NGR) has become the Women's African champion an amazing 24 years after she first won the title.

The 41-year-old Nigerian veteran first won the African title in 1992 and her last triumph came in 2002 before her triumph on Sunday 30 October 2016 at the ITTF-Africa Championships in Agadir, Morocco.

OSHONAIKE faced younger opponent Dina MESHREF (EGY) who has dominated African table tennis in the previous years in the Women's Singles final. It was OSHONAIKE who made the better start, moving ahead 2-0, before MESHREF responded to bring the score level to 2-2. However, age proved to be just a number as OSHONAIKE won game five and six to clinch the title 11-7, 13-11, 5-11, 9-11, 11-7, 11-7.

After winning the emotional title, OSHONAIKE stated: "This victory means a lot to me that I can still become African champion despite my age. It shows that nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it. I feel great and I am so excited that I can still do it and this is also an inspiration for girls that no matter your age, you can achieve whatever you want to in life."

In the Men's Singles, Omar ASSAR (EGY) won the African title for the second time in a row.

The Men's Singles finals matchup between Omar ASSAR (EGY) and Quadri ARUNA (NGR) was also one that many were looking forward to due to ARUNA's historic run to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games quarterfinal.

The match did not disappoint, with the African superstars producing a seven games epic thriller, where ASSAR was able to hold his nerve to win 10-12, 11-6, 11-9, 8-11, 12-10, 6-11, 11-9.

After claiming his second consecutive title, ASSAR stated: "It was really a crazy match because against Quadri, it is always very exciting. I gave my 100 percent concentration and I was listening more to my coach, AshrafHELMY. I think ARUNA played very well because he was always changing service and he was more aggressive on his forehand. I am so happy retaining the title and I hope I can play better than this in future tournaments."

ARUNA did not go home empty-handed, teaming up with Nigerian teammate Segun TORIOLA (NGR) to defeat the Egyptian pair Lashin EL-SAYED and Ahmed ALI SALEH (EGY) to clinch the Men's Doubles title.

Egypt dominated the Women's Doubles and Mixed Doubles events with Dina MESHREF partnering her cousin Yousra HELMY to win the Women's Doubles title, and also winning the Mixed Doubles event with Omar ASSAR.

Egypt completed a memorable African Championships by claiming both the Men's & Women's Team titles to add to their success in the individual events.

All attention now turned to the 2016 ITTF World Tour Hybiome Austrian Open, to be held on 9-13 November 2016 in Linz, Austria.

Revised TTFI calendar for 2016 from September to January 2017

Award Ceremony of Asian Championships, Bangkok

Six cities that have won the right to host a 2017 ITTF World Tour Platinum events along with regular ITTF World Tour events

ITTF Announces 12 Host Cities for New & Improved 2017 World Tour

The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) is excited to announce the 12 cities that will host the new and improved 2017 ITTF World Tour events.

The revamped ITTF World Tour will have a new logo, new branding and a new structure to better promote table tennis globally.

On the announcement, ITTF Marketing Director Steve DAINTON stated: "In 2016, we have worked hard to look at ways to push the World Tour product forward, with new partners and new conditions, the desire to host events has dramatically increased and we are so pleased to see conditions such as prize money increasing as well. We will now push forward to ensure events can grow both in terms of popularity and commercially so that over time we can showcase international table tennis more regularly throughout the year."

The 2017 World Tour will be split into two tiers, six ITTF World Tour Platinum events, which is the new top tier of the World Tour, and six regular ITTF World Tour events.

There was an unprecedented amount of bids to be a part of the new ITTF World Tour, with the result being a higher prize money pool for all players.

The six ITTF World Tour Platinum events will have higher prize money, and be of a higher level organisation, which will ensure the attendance of the world's best players, resulting in more international exposure for the hosts.

The six cities that have won the right to host a 2017 ITTF World Tour Platinum event are:

• Doha, Qatar: 23-26 February 2017
• Tokyo, Japan: 16-18 June 2017
• Chengdu, China: 22-25 June 2017
• Gold Coast, Australia: 29 June - 2 July 2017
• Linz, Austria: 1- 3 September 2017
• Magdeburg, Germany 10-12 November 2017

The regular ITTF World Tour events are:

• Budapest, Hungary: 19-22 January 2017
• New Delhi, India: 16-19 February 2017
• Incheon, Korea: 20-23 April 2017
• Olomouc, Czech Republic: 24-27 August 2017
• Panagyurishte, Bulgaria: 7-10 September 2017
• Stockholm, Sweden: 16-19 November 2017

Australia & Austria move up to the top World Tour tier for the first time, after successfully hosting regular lower-tiered World Tour events. India joins the ITTF World Tour for the first time, with New Delhi hosting the breakthrough event in February next year.

The 12 events all offer World Tour Standings points, which will be used to determine the top 16 players that qualify for the World Tour Grand Finals, to be held from 14-17 December 2017 in a location to be determined.

Bidding for the 2018 ITTF World Tour will open in November.

Women's Team Semifinal Places Determined at Rio 2016

Semifinals places for the Rio 2016 Olympic Table Tennis Women's Team has been finalized today, 13 August 2016 at Riocentro Pavilion 3, with all going according to the team seeding.

Singapore overcame Korea Republic 3-2 in an enthralling Quarterfinals encounter to move on and face off the defending Olympic Champions, China in the Women's Team Semifinals.

Coming back from 1-2 matches down, 22-year-old ZHOU Yihan saved the day for the Singaporean team, upsetting world number eighteen SUH, pushing the encounter into the fifth match where word number four FENG took on 2015 World Mixed Doubles Champion YANG Haeun.

YANG continued her strong form in the doubles match, which she won with world number eleven JEON Jihee, to challenge FENG into a 5 games duel, but It was the more experienced FENG who stood up to the test and seal the victory in front of a cheering Singaporean contingent led by the Republic's President.

Winning two points for the team, FENG shared "It was an intense and tough match. I played the first and last match, so both are very crucial. It's good that we didn't come into the match with too much pressure, and all three of us fought hard for every point."

Singapore will now meet top seeded China in the Semifinals, and will be looking to repeat their heroics at the 2010 World Team Championships, where they upset China to claim the first World Championships Gold for Singapore.

In a repeat of the 2015 World Team Cup Final, China defeated DPR Korea in three straight matches.

Women's Singles Finalists LI Xiaoxia (CHN) and DING Ning (CHN) teamed with world number one LIU Shiwen in hope of claiming a third consecutive Team Gold since the team event was incorporated into the Olympic Games in 2008.

All attention was on KIM Song I (PRK), who was the surprise Bronze medalist in the Women's Single event after shocking several top ranked players including world number six Kasumi ISHIKAWA and world number eight Ai FUKUHARA to claim the first ever Olympic Table Tennis medal for DPR Korea.

Meeting KIM for the first time, LIU stated "KIM Song I is very smart with her strategy, kept varying her playing style to create more challenges for me. I'm happy that I came through to win against her."

Japan, who won silver at the London 2012 Women's Team event, face the tough challenge of the Austrian women's team, who were looking to repeat the success of their mens team earlier in the day. The Japanese women, having their eyes set on the Olympic team medal after missing out on an Olympic Singles medal, gave the Austrians no chance of recovery, winning 3-0 to make their third consecutive Semifinals appearance.

Japan will play Germany in the second Semifinal match. Fourth seeded in the Team event, the German trio of HAN Ying, Petrissa SOLJA and SHAN Xiaona had knocked out a spirited Hong Kong team 3-1 to make it to their first Olympic Team Semifinals.

In addition to the Women's Quarterfinal matches, the second half of the men's Round of 16 matches were played today.

The blockbuster tie was between Austria and Portugal, who are respectively the 2015 and 2014 European Team champions. Every match was extremely close, but it was Austria who prevailed 3-1 to book their ticket in the Quarterfinals.

Austria will face the London 2012 silver medalists Germany, who survived a scare to beat Chinese Taipei 3-1. Both of Germany's top players Timo BOLL and Dimitrij OVTCHAROV had a point to prove after their earlier than expected exits from the Singles event. They both bounced back brilliantly to win their singles matches and secure the win for the number two seeds, despite losing the doubles tie.

Japan were expected to beat Portugal easily to move to the next round, but they were pushed much more than expected. It was up to the singles bronze medalist Jun MIZUTANI to save Japan by winning both his singles matches to help Japan win 3-2 a place in the Quarterfinals against Hong Kong China, who defeated Australia 3-0.

These four teams join China, Great Britain, Korea Republic and Sweden in tomorrow's Quarterfinal.

MA Long Completes Golden Grand Slam with Rio 2016 Gold

Reigning World Champion and Men's World Cup Champion MA Long (CHN) has become the Rio 2016 Olympic Games champion after beating defending Champion ZHANG Jike (CHN) and achieve his first Golden Grand Slam title.

In a highly anticipated final that the world was waiting for, MA was clearly showed his dominance throughout the match to sweep the second seed 4-0 (14-12, 11-5, 11-4, 11-4) to deny ZHANG of his second career Grand Slam.

The newly crowned Olympic Champion shared "I played well throughout the match, the title is only possible with that high level of play."

MA added that "We both know each other very well, so it's not a competition of skills, but more of mentality and psychology. For me, I'm not defending any title here, so I have less pressure on court. After winning, I'm still feeling calm. This moment, I think I have improved."

Currently ranked first in the world, MA was in unbeatable form in 2015, claiming all major men's singles world titles - World Championships, Men's World Cup, ITTF World Tour Grand Finals.

Failing to defend his title against MA, ZHANG reflected "The crucial part of the game lies in the first game, I was still slow in my reacting and weaker in rallies with my backhand. If I had won the first game, the whole match might have turned a different way."

"MA Long's skills are better than mine, no matter is it in his first three strokes, or changing between attacking and blocking. Congratulations to him!" added the two-time World Champion.

Jun MIZUTANI (JPN) took home the Bronze medal with a 4-1 victory over Vladimir SAMSONOV (BLR).

The 8-time Japanese National Champion started by dominating the first game 11-4, and winning the second 11-9. Despite SAMSONOV recovering to take the third game, MIZUTANI was determined not to follow the footsteps of compatriot Ai FUKUHARA (JPN) who crumpled 4-1 to KIM Song I (PRK) yesterday in the battle for Women's Singles Bronze.

MIZUTANI returned to the table strong after losing the third game, and ended matters 4-1 (11-4, 11-9, 6-11, 14-12, 11-8) to win a first Olympic table tennis singles medal for Japan.

"I feel very happy! This is the best feeling ever!" stated the world number six after his historic victory.

"SAMSONOV was not an easy opponent to play as we know each other very well. Although he came back and won a game, and was close to winning the fourth, I did not give up until the end."

Competing in his sixth Olympic Games, SAMSONOV was disappointed for missing an Olympic medal again this time in Rio, stating "It is definitely not a very good feeling to lose the bronze medal match. This is probably my last chance to get an Olympic medal, as I don't know if I will be at Tokyo."

The 40-year-old table tennis legend suffered a rib injury after sustaining a fall during his quarterfinals match against London 2012 Bronze medalist, Dimitrij OVTCHAROV.

"After my match with OVTCHAROV, I was injured and probably did not really get into the game in this match. I also didn't want to push my injury too hard. Although I missed the chance to win the fourth game, the adrenaline made me just move on and forget.

The Rio 2016 Olympic table tennis event continues tomorrow, 12 August 2016 with the commencement of the Men's and Women's Team events in Riocentro Pavilion 3.