So far, one Nigerian has advanced on Saturday to the next
round of his event in the table tennis competition of the Rio Olympic Games,
while two others dropped to the sidelines.
Though Segun Toriola progressed to the second round in the
male singles, Funke Oshonaike and Edem Offiong could only go beyond the
preliminary round of the women’s singles.
Dmitrij Prokopcov of Czech Republic was beaten 4-2 in the
Men’s Singles Round One by Toriola who is making a record appearance in the
competition.
Before levelling the tie at 1-1 with an 11-6 win, in his
game on Pavilion 3 at RioCentro, the Nigerian lost 8-11 in the first set.
He however took the next set 11-8, only to lose 9-11 for the
tie to stay stable at 2-2, before he won the next two sets 11-8, 11-8 to progress
to the next round.
Contrarily, it was not palatable for Oshonaike as she packed
up out in the Women’s Singles Round 1 after losing 2-4 to 15-year-old Adriana
Diaz of Puerto Rico. In the opening set, she lost 7-11 before winning 11-7,
11-4 to lead 2-1, and still lose the next three sets 11-7, 11-5, 11-2.
Though Oshonaike earlier, in the Women’s Singles Preliminary
Round, had beaten Mariana Sahakian of Lebanon 4-3 to progress from a
topsy-turvy game.
After losing the first set 8-11, she won the next three
games 11-9, 11-7, 11-8 to make the game look easy and all over. However, her
Lebanese rival rallied back to win 11-8, 11-9 to draw level at 3-3, before
Oshonaike won the tie with an 11-8 victory in the seventh game to advance.
Similarly, Offiong lost 1-4 to Viktoria Pavlovich of
Belarus, after winning the first game 11-5.
She lost 11-8, 11-8, 11-7, 11-4 to join Oshonaike on the
sidelines.
Much more earlier at the competition, Offiong had looked
tough by beating Sally Yee of Fiji 4-0, winning 11-3, 11-8, 11-3, 11-2.
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