24th July, 2021
Multiple Olympic Games participant Funke Oshonaike has been sent packing from the Tokyo 2020 Games in the preliminary round.
45-year-old Oshonaike lost 1-4 to Juan Liu of the U.S in the women’s table tennis singles.
Oshonaike who has represented Nigeria at seven Olympic Games failed to come to the party losing the first three sets to her opponent.
She lost the first set 7-11, the second 3-11 and the third 4-11, before winning the fourth set 13-11 and then losing the fifth 4-11 to crash out of the Games.
Things just didn’t turn out the way she planned.
Admitting she had a difficult draw, she had vowed to fight with the last blood.
“With God all things are possible”, she wrote on Facebook on 23 July.
(Watch Oshonaike in practice with Toriola:
Compatriot Offiong Edem, in her own match, however, thrashed Hungarian opponent Dora Madarasz 4-1 in another preliminary round fixture.
Edem came out triumphant after winning the first set 11-8, the second 11-9 and the third 11-9 to complete an amazing 3-0 lead.
Madarasz however looked to bounce back in the fourth set after taking it 11-9, before Edem extinguished any comeback hopes when she dismissed her opponent 11-4 in the fifth set.