Olympic Games: Team Nigeria Flops

Results coming from London 2012 Olympics indicate that it things are very tough for Team Nigeria at the world championships.

With about four days into the Olympics, some countries are already counting their medals, but the case is different for the Nigerian contingent. There is no sign that Team Nigeria will make much impact at this year’s Games.

Nigeria’s Table tennis team were badly hit with all the country’s representatives losing out early in the tournament.

Quadri Aruna, Team Nigeria’s remaining table tennis player as at early Sunday, crashed out of the competition.

Aruna lost 2-4 in his second round game to Turkey’s Bora Vang at the ExCel-North Arena 1, in spite of winning the first two games of the fixture.

Aruna, 23, who drew bye into the first round where he beat Carlos Machado of Spain 4-2 on Saturday, had carried Nigeria’s hope of remaining in the event on his shoulders.

The Nigerian team had qualified for only the singles event of the competition and Aruna’s male teammate, Segun Toriola, had earlier crashed out on Saturday, after advancing to the first round.

The two female players, Olufunke Oshonaike and Offiong Edem, had also seen their aspirations cut short on Saturday, with Edem losing her first game in the preliminary round.

Also, Nigeria’s first-ever Olympic Games competitor in the canoeing event, Jonathan Akinyemi, failed to live up to expectations in his first attempt.

The London-based athlete, who was the event’s lowest-ranked entrant at 130 placed 20th in a field of 22 competitors after the first two runs to drop out of the chase for medals.

Togo’s Benjamin Boukpeti who was a bronze medallist at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 fared better than Akinyemi, as he escaped dropping out of the contest with a time of 90.52 for 10th place.

After the event, Akinyemi said he was disappointed with his performance. According to him: “I tried to see how I could manage myself but it did not work. It’s very painful and I’m sad.”

One of the Nigeria’s boxers, Muideen Akanji lost to Darren O’Neill of Ireland in the round of 32 Middle (75Kg) bout. O’Neill won by 15-6 points.

However, D’Tigers managed to defeat Tunisia 60-56 points in the men’s basketball opening match, the only consolation for Team Nigeria, as the Olympics get to the crucial stages this week.