Olympics: Nigeria’s Table Tennis reps knocked out as Aruna loses
Team Nigeria’s Table Tennis Captain , Aruna Quadri has been knocked out from men’s singles events at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The Team Nigeria’s captain to Tokyo2020 lost 4-2 (15-13, 9-11, 6-11, 11-7, 7-11, 6-11) to a Brazilian, Gustavo Tsuboi, in a keenly fought contest.
With his defeat, all Team Nigeria’s representatives in table tennis have been knocked out from the Olympics.
Other Team Nigeria’s representatives in table tennis who have been eliminated from the competition are Funke Oshonaike, Offiong Edem, and Olajide Omotayo.
Multiple Olympic Games participant Funke Oshonaike was sent packing from the Tokyo 2020 Games in the preliminary round.
The 45-year-old Oshonaike lost 1-4 to Juan Liu of the US in the women’s table tennis singles.
Oshonaike who has represented Nigeria at seven Olympic Games lost the first three sets to her opponent.
She lost the first set 7-11, the second 3-11 and the third 4-11, before winning the fourth set 13-11 and then lost the fifth 4-11 to crash out of the Games.
Also, Olajide Omotayo on Saturday in Tokyo crashed out of the men’s table tennis singles event of the ongoing 2020 Olympic Games.
Omotayo was humiliated with 0-4 defeat by Tiago Apolonia of Portugal.
On Monday, Offiong Edem succumbed 4-1 (15-13, 11-2, 11-2, 11-8, 11-6) to the firepower of Lily Zhang of US in the second round of the table tennis women singles event of the ongoing 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The match played at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gym saw 24-year-old Edem, who is ranked number 121 in the world, take on a more experienced Zhang ranked 31 in the ITTF World rankings.
Edem had progressed to the second round after she thrashed her Hungarian opponent Dora Madarasz 4-1 in the preliminary round.
NP/Confidence Okwuchi
