The men's event was dominated by the host nation early on, with an all-Egypt semi-finals and final, where second seed Assar overcame Ahmed Ali Saleh for the continental gold medal.

Assar's victory makes him the sixth Egyptian player to win the men's singles title at an Africa Senior Championships, following on from Farouk El-Kabbany in 1974, Adel Massad in 1990, Ashraf Helmy in 1992, Ahmed Saleh in 2000, 2007 and 2010 and El-Sayed Lashin in 2012.

Meshref was also the second seed in the women's event and defeated Congolese Olympian Han Xing in the gold medal match for the title.

She becomes only the fourth Egyptian to claim the women's singles crown and the first in over a decade, following on from Innes El-Darwish in 1962, Shahaira El-Alfy in 2000 and Bacent Osman in 2004.

Dina Meshref won the women's singles title at the International Table Tennis Federation Africa Senior Championships ©Getty Images
Today's gold medals bring the host nation's title total to five of the seven on offer, having secured the men's and women's team titles and mixed doubles honours earlier in the week.

One of the two medals eluding Egypt was the men's doubles, which was won by Nigeria's Quadri Aruna and Makanjuola Kazeem.

They defeated their compatriots Oljo Onaolapo and Jide Ogindiolu to take the prize, which is their first ever major international doubles title.

The women's doubles gold was won by Xing and her team mate Onyinyechi Nwachukwu when they overcome Egyptian defending champions Nadeen El-Dawlatly and Meshref.

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