Accra, Ghana’s table tennis top seed Derek Abrefa is elated, he has qualified for the 2023 World Table Tennis Championship (WTTC) to be hosted in South Africa.
This comes after his remarkable outing in West Africa’s Final Qualification to the WTTC where he has reached the quarter-final stage of the competition and is set to face Azeez Solanke from Nigeria for a place in the semi-final.
In the singles event qualifier, he defeated Jimo Alvaro 3-0 in his first singles encounter and went ahead to defeat Bangoura Abdoulaye 3-0 to progress in the competition.
Speaking after qualification to the WTTC, Abrefa expressed excitement for reaching this new milestone despite the challenges that confronted him prior to the start of the tournament.
“I could not watch Ghana miss out on the World Championship singles category. I had to fight tooth and nail with my swollen injured finger and I am excited about the victory.
“I am grateful to God for how far he has brought me and grateful to Ghana Table Tennis Association President Mawuko Afadzinu, the Director of Sports for Ghana Immigration Service, Samuel Ayer, our coaches and all my fans back home for their support,” he said.
Abrefa is the only Ghanaian to progress further in the competition with his nine counterparts in both the male and female categories not succeeding in the respective quest to qualify for the 2023 WTTC.
Abrefa is a five-time Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) Table Tennis player of the year having represented Ghana at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia.
He is Ghana’s highest-ranked player on the international stage, with 204 being his highest ranking in the world.
Source: Ghana News Agency
