Aruna Quadri suffers shock defeat in Olympic table tennis event
Nigeria suffered double heartbreak in the men’s singles of the Olympic Table Tennis Tournament in France .
Against all odds the country’s medal hopeful Aruna Quadri slumped 3-4 to Romania’s Eduard Ionescu in the round of 64 to.send shockwaves around the game’s circle.
The Nigerian player ranked 16th in the world, gave up a 3-0 lead to Ionescu who fought back to go through.
Aruna tried so hard in the last set, even forcing a tie-break, but it was not meant to be.
Aruna’s elimination made it the second loss on the day for Nigeria after two time Olympian Olajide Omotayo exited, 1-4, in the round of 64 against Noshad Alamiyan of Iran.
The Nigerian started the game in high spirits by winning the first set 11-6 but the Iranian turned the tables round, dominating the next two sets 5-11, 4-1.
There was a moment of hope for Omotayo in the fourth set as he started making up for the unfortunate previous two sets but it was not enough as Alamiyan fought through to win the set 10-12 and backed it up with an 8-11 victory in the final set to seal up the game.
