QUADRI Aruna has become Nigeria’s latest casualty at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after crashing out of the men’s singles table tennis event on Tuesday.
The Team Nigeria captain, ranked 15th for the event, lost the third-round match to Brazil’s Gustavo Tsuboi 4-2 to join his compatriots in exiting the competition.
At the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium,
Aruna won the first game 15-13 and looked on course to advance to the next stage.
However, Gustavo won the next two games of the best-of-seven contest 11-9 and 11-6 to go 2-1 up.
Nigerian No.1 and Africa’s big hope Aruna won the fourth game 11-7 to tie the match at at 2-2.
He then slipped up in the next two games, going down 11-7, 11-6 to crash out of the competition.
Aruna, who became the first African to ever reach the quarter-final stage in Olympics table tennis at the Rio Games in 2016, has ended Nigeria’s interest in the sport in Tokyo.
He joins Funke Oshonaike, Offiong Edem and Olajide Omotayo in getting eliminated in the early rounds.
