Segun Toriola

Segun Toriola
Personal information
Full name	TORIOLA Segun Moses
Nationality	Nigeria
Medal record Men's table tennis Competitor for Nigeria African Championships Gold 2002 Bizerte Singles Silver 2002 Bizerte Doubles Gold 2002 Bizerte Mixed Doubles Silver 2002 Bizerte Team Gold 1998 Port Louis Singles Bronze 1998 Port Louis Doubles Silver 1994 Cairo Singles Gold 1994 Cairo Doubles Gold 1994 Cairo Team Silver 1992 Lagos Singles Gold 1992 Lagos Doubles Gold 1992 Lagos Mixed Doubles Gold 1992 Lagos Team

Segun Moses Toriola, born 18 September 1974 in Ilorin, Kwara, Nigeria is a Nigerian professional table tennis player.

He is the youngest of nine brothers.

Since 1995 he has been ranked as the best Nigerian player. He has been amongst the top table tennis players in Africa since the mid 1990s. Ranked number 1 in Africa from 1998 to June 2008, when Egyptian Eli Saleh Ahmed became the leading African table tennis player. However, since 2009, Toriola has again been the number 1 in Africa. 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 five Summer Olympics debuting at Barcelona. 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 favoured Oh Sang-Eun in the 1/8 final.

His 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.

See also

• List of table tennis players
• List of athletes with the most appearances at Olympic Games

External links

• Sports-Reference Profile