Monday Merotohun (born 2 November 1977 in

Ado-Odo ' Ado-Odo is the metropolitan headquarters of the kingdom of Ado, renowned for its Oduduwa/ Obatala temple, the ancient fortress of the traditional practice of Ifá (''Ado n'ile Ifa''). Oodu'a is also regarded by traditionalists as the mother o ...

Ogun Ogun or Ogoun (Yoruba: Ògún, Portuguese: Ogum, Gu; also spelled Oggun or Ogou; known as Ogún or Ogum in Latin America) is a spirit that appears in several African religions. He attempted to seize the throne after the demise of Obatala, who re ...

) is a Nigerian table tennis player. Playing with his partner

Segun Toriola Segun Moses Toriola (born 18 September 1974 in Ilorin, Kwara, Nigeria) is a retired Nigeria 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 t ...

, Merotohun defeated Egypt's

El-sayed Lashin El-Sayed Lashin (born 9 February 1980 in Alexandria, Egypt) is an Egyptian table tennis player. His current club is Al Ahly in Cairo, where he resides. He qualified for his third Olympic Games at the All Africa Games held in September 2011 in Ma ...

and

Ahmed Saleh Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh al-Ahmar ( ar, أحمد علي عبد الله صالح الأحمر; born July 25, 1972) is the eldest son of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and was a commander of approximately 80,000 troops of the Republi ...

for the gold medal in the men's doubles at the

2007 All-Africa Games The 9th All-Africa Games took place between 11 and 23 July 2007 in Algiers, the capital city of Algeria. Algiers is the first city to hold All-Africa Games for a second time. The 1978 All-Africa Games were held there. Besides Algeria, only Nige ...

Algiers, Algeria Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques d ...

. As of September 2012, Merotohun is ranked no. 184 in the world by the

International Table Tennis Federation The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) is the governing body for all national table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the p ...

(ITTF). He is a member of AS TT Sport Club Etna Riposto in

Catania Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also by ...

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, and is coached and trained by Obisanya Babatunde. Merotohun is also right-handed, and uses the shakehand grip. Merotohun made his official debut at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, where he competed in both the singles and doubles tournaments. For his first event, the men's singles, Merotohun defeated Democratic Republic of the Congo's Momo Babungu in the preliminary round, before losing out his next match to Swedish table tennis player and five-time Olympian

Jörgen Persson Jörgen Persson (born 22 April 1966, in Halmstad, Sweden) is a Swedish table tennis player. In two memorable World Table Tennis Championships finals he faced fellow Swede Jan-Ove Waldner in 1989 and 1991, losing the former and winning the latter ...

, with a set score of 1–4. Merotohun also teamed up with four-time Olympian Segun Toriola in the men's doubles, where they lost the first round match to the U.S. pair,

Mark Hazinski Mark "Haz" Hazinski (born April 20, 1985, in South Bend, Indiana) is an American professional table tennis athlete. He started playing table tennis at the age of 9 and by the age of 15 had become the youngest player in the history of United Sta ...

and

Ilija Lupulesku Ilija Lupulesku ( sr-cyr, Илија Лупулеску; born October 30, 1967) is a former Serbian and later American table tennis player who competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics, 1988, 1992 Summer Olympics, 1992, 1996 Summer Olympics, 1996, 2000 ...

(former Olympic silver medalist from Serbia), receiving a unanimous set score of 0–4. Four years after competing in his first Olympics, Merotohun qualified for his second Nigerian team, as a 30-year-old, at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, by placing second from the men's singles from the All-Africa Games, and receiving a continental spot for Africa in the men's team under ITTF's Computer Team Ranking List. Merotohun joined with his fellow players Kazeem Nosiru and Segun Toriola for the inaugural men's team event. He and his team placed third in the preliminary pool round, earning a total of four points, two defeats (against Japan and Hong Kong), and a single victory over the Russian team (led by Alexei Smirnov). In the men's singles, Merotohun lost the preliminary round match to Turkey's

Cem Zeng Cem Zengi (born as Zheng Changgong 郑长弓 October 21, 1985 in China) is a male Chinese-born Turkish table tennis player. He has played for Fenerbahçe TT since 2006; he also has played for ''Quan Xing Si Chuan'' in China. Major achievemen ...

, with a set score of 2–4.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Merotohun, Monday 1977 births Living people Nigerian male table tennis players Table tennis players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic table tennis players for Nigeria Sportspeople from Ogun State Commonwealth Games medallists in table tennis Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Nigeria Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Nigeria Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Nigeria African Games gold medalists for Nigeria African Games medalists in table tennis African Games silver medalists for Nigeria Table tennis players at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Table tennis players at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Competitors at the 2007 All-Africa Games Competitors at the 2011 All-Africa Games 20th-century Nigerian people 21st-century Nigerian people Medallists at the 2002 Commonwealth Games