Havana, March 28 (PL) - Cuba's Andy Pereira consolidated his sixth place in the list of aspirants to access the world ranking for the table tennis tournament of the Olympic Games in Paris, according to the weekly Jit.

Pereira accumulates 404 points in the list that will define the owners of 15 tickets to compete in the event under the five rings of the French capital, after advancing to the round of 16 in the two WTT Feeder tournaments held in the Lebanese city of Beirut.

In addition, the individual runner-up of the XIX Pan American Games of Santiago 2023 is studying the qualification route through a continental competition to be hosted by Lima, from May 14 to 18.

Nigeria's Quadri Aruna leads the candidates for the Olympic quota by ranking, with 1,115 units, followed by Great Britain's Liam Pitchford (621), Kazakhstan's Kirill Gerassimenko (556), Romania's Ovidiu Ionescu (437) and Chile's Nicolás Burgos (417).

Pereira also plans to participate in three WTT Feeder Series events in April, with the ambition of scoring points.

That tour would begin on the 2nd in Varazdin, Croatia, and would continue with the presentations in the German city of Dusseldorf (8-12) and Havirov (14-17), in the Czech Republic.

He will be accompanied by his compatriot Daniela Fonseca, who participated in the Lebanese competition and, together with Jorge Moisés Campos, has secured a place in the mixed double for Paris 2024.

Fonseca will compete in the qualifier in the Peruvian capital, where she could get an individual ticket to the Olympics.

According to the president of the Cuban Table Tennis Federation, Bárbaro Oliva, Pereira should receive an invitation to the grand smash circuit phase in Saudi Arabia in early May.

The executive recalled that a few weeks ago he competed in the Singapore 2024 Table Tennis Grand Smash.

"Although he lost in his first match to Ecuador's Alberto Miño, he scored 10 points for the ranking, very important to stay in the fight for the Olympic ticket, he told Jit.