Aruna’s defeat ends Team Nigeria’s hopes for Olympic medal in table tennis

Team Nigeria will no longer hope for a medal in the table tennis event of the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympics after Aruna Quadri lost his match on Tuesday morning.

Aruna, who is Nigerian and African number one, was eliminated after losing to Gustavo Tsuboi of Brazil in the third round.

The athlete, who is the captain of Team Nigeria in Tokyo, lost 4-2 to his Brazilian counterpart to bow out of the summer games.

Aruna took the first set 15-13 before Tsuboi rallied back to take the next two sets 11-9, 11-6.

Aruna fought back hard and was rewarded in the fourth set with 11-7 before Tsuboi sealed the last two sets 11-7 and 11-6.

Read Also: Gallant D’Tigress begin Tokyo Olympics campaign with defeat to USA

Nigeria’s other table tennis representative in the men’s singles Olajide Omotayo also crashed out after defeat to Tiago Apolonia of Portugal in the first round.

In the women’s singles event, seven-time Olympian, Funke Oshonaike crashed out after defeat in her first game, while Edem Offiong was knocked out in the second round after she won her first game.

Meanwhile, Team Nigeria’s badminton men’s doubles representatives at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Godwin Olofua and Anuoluwapo Opeyori have also crashed out following their defeat to Denmark in their second Group B game.

Opeyori and Olofua on Monday succumbed to a 2-0 straight set defeat of 21-7, 21-10 to Denmark’s Kim Astrup and Aders Skaarup Rasmussen who are world number 12 in the doubles ranking.

Both players had lost their opening game to hosts Japan also in straight set of 21-2, 21-7.

They will now take on Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov from Russia on Tuesday in their final fixture.

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