Team Nigeria Continues Poor Run At Tokyo 2020

Nigeria continued her poor run in the ongoing Tokyo Olympics games after players lost out in the table tennis singles event. The only remarkable point for the country was the induction of veteran table tennis star, Funke Oshonaike into the ITTF Club 7.
Despite crashing out of contention at the Games, Oshonaike officially joined the exclusive club of table tennis players who have attended seven Olympics.
Funke was presented, with a certificate of authenticity, crafted in sterling silver and layered with white gold at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium Hall.
The Olympic participation record dates back to her first Olympics in the 1996 Atlanta games as she is the first woman to hold such in the ITTF.
She attended the ceremony alongside Segun Toriola and the Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Olympic Committee, Phemmy Adetula.
Meanwhile, another vetran and medal hopeful, Aruna Quadri, suffered a defeat in the men’s singles yesterday.
The Nigerian lost 4-2 to Brazil’s Gustavo Tsuboi in the third round and has been eliminated from the game.
Quadri who reached the last eight of the 2016 edition in Rio took the first set 15-13, but Tsuboi fought back to win the next two sets 11-9, 11-6.
Aruna responded and won the fourth game 11-7, but fell short in the final two sets as Tsuboi sealed passage into the next round with 11-7 and 11-6 victory.
Aruna has now followed his compatriot Olajide Omotayo, Funke Oshonaike, and Offiong Edem out of the competition.
Nigeria’s table tennis sensation, Offiong Edem was also eliminated from the Tokyo Olympics Women’s single event.
The 34-year-old kissed the event goodbye following a defeat to three-time American Champions, Lily Zhang in the early hours of Monday.
Edem, who was far from her best lost by four sets to one (13-11,2-11,2-11, 8-11,6-11).
Despite the defeat, Edem remains the only Nigerian table tennis star with a win at the ongoing Tokyo Olympics.
She defeated Csilla Dora Madarasz 8-11, 9-11, 9-11, 11-9, 4-11) in her first match, before the eventual defeat to the three-time Olympics champion.
In a related development, Nigeria’s Elizabeth Anyanacho has voiced her disappointment for missing out on a medal at the Olympics.
Anyanacho failed to make it to the podium in taekwondo following a narrow defeat to a Turkish opponent Nur Tartar on Sunday.
She competed in the women’s -67kg and suffered a 12-7 to much experienced Nur Tartar of Turkey.
“I lost to Turkey 7 – 12. Turkey then lost in golden point to the USA after a 1 – 1 draw. This means I am totally out of fighting for a podium place at the Tokyo Olympics,” she told the media.
“I have cried and I still feel hurt because I wanted to spring a good surprise, despite being four years early to my original Paris 2024 Olympics.
“It has been quite a journey. Truly, a long and challenging journey with a rollercoaster of emotions.
She added that the painful defeat will surely help her development in sports.
In basketball, it was an encouraging encounter for Nigeria’s D’tigress as they lost to World powerhouse, United States 72-81 in the opening group B match of the Tokyo Olympics games.
The Nigerian girls started the game pretty promptly and sharp as they ran into a 6 point lead early in the game and took the first quarter with a 3point lead over the USA at 20-17.
They fell short of the spark in the 2nd quarter as the experience of USA players came to the party as they racked up 27 points in the quarter to Nigeria’s 12 to take the quarter 32-44.
More of the same it was in the 3rd quarter as the match began to run agonizingly away from Nigeria’s D’Tigress as the USA began to drop huge 3pts shots and draw a lot of fouls from Nigeria due to the aggressive defensive full court play of the Nigerians as the quarter ended 50-70.
With almost all hope gone, the huge height of the United States girls began to show as they extended the lead by over 20pts and it was beginning to look like a landslide comfortable win for the USA but it wasn’t to be as Nigeria’s D’Tigress showed outstanding fighting spirit and accrued a massive 22points in the last quarter compared to USA’s 11points to reduce the deficit to just 9points.