Team Nigeria finally had something to cheer about on Saturday as Table Tennis recorded the first win for the country in the ongoing 2020 Olympics Games.
On a day Team Nigeria saw her athletes crashing out in the Rowing, table tennis and Gymnastics events, Edem Offiong changed the story on Saturday afternoon as she recorded a comprehensive 4-1 win against Dora Madarasz of Hungary.
The breakdown of results shows Offiong winning 11-9, 11-9, 11-9, 9-11, 11-4 to secure a place in the second round of the women singles events in table tennis.
Earlier, Funke Oshonaike, Nigeria’s history maker in table tennis crashed out in the preliminaries to USA’s Juan Liu in five sets. The 45-year-old ranked 175 in the world, lost 4-1 to her 36-year-old opponent.
Liu, ranked 449 in the world, won the first three sets: 11-7 11-3 11-4 before Oshonaike took the fourth in a tie-break 13-11. But Liu clinched qualification for the first round by claiming the fifth deciding set 11-4.
Also, Olajide Omotayo was stopped in the first round of competition in the men’s table tennis event.
Omotayo succumbed to the superior firepower of Portugal’s Tiago Apolonia in straight games, losing 4-0 in round 1 of the men’s singles.
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