Rio Olympics: Ukogu, Oshonaike, Edem in good start

It was a good start for Nigerian athletes competing at the on-going Rio Olympics as the trio of Chierika Ukogu, Funke Oshonaike and Edem Offiong qualify for the next stage of their different sports.

In Rowing, Ukogo qualified to the quarter-finals of the women’s event of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games with the 23 year old American born rower finished third with a time of 8:35:34 behind Austria’s Lobnig Magdalena who came first with a time of 8:26:38 and Czech’s Topinkova Miroslava in second with a time of 8:29:90.

In women table tennis, Team Nigeria assistant captain, Funke Oshonaike, got off to a winning start after she defeated Mariana Sahakian four sets to three in the preliminary round in day One of the competition.

Oshonaike lost the first set 8-11 but bounced back to take the next three sets 11-9, 11-7 and 11-8.

Sahakian rallied back to win the next two sets 8-11 and 9-11 before Oshonaike finally won the last set 11-8.

Similarly, Nigeria’s other representative in the women’s event, Edem Offiong, also won after thrashing sally Yee of Fiji 4-0 to also move into Round One.