TEAM Nigeria’s Offiong Edem has been sent packing from the table tennis women’s singles event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The veteran, 34, lost 4-1 (13-11, 2-11, 2-11, 8-11, 6-11) in the second round to United States of America’s Lily Zhang.
Edem won a tight first game 13-11 but folded in the next two games, managing just two points from each game.
She put up some resistance in the final two games, stretching game 3 towards the end before the higher-ranked American claimed the last crucial points.
Edem, who had beaten Dora Madarasz 4-1 on Saturday to reach the second round, joins her compatriot and seven-time Olympian Funke Oshonaike in crashing out of the women’s singles event.
Quadri Aruna, who reached a historic quarter-final stage at the Rio Olympics in 2016 (the first African to get that far) is the the only Nigerian athlete left in the table tennis event at Tokyo 2020.
Team Nigeria captain Aruna, seeded 15th, begins his medal quest in the men’s singles on Tuesday.
In more bad news for Nigeria on Monday, Clara Azurmendi defeated Dorcas Adesokan 2-0 (10-21, 2-21) in their first Group C match of the women’s singles in badminton.
Nigeria’s Adesokan must beat seventh seed An Se-Young in her next group match on Tuesday to stay on course for a medal.
