By Samuel Akpan, reporting live from Paris
Nigeria’s quest for a podium finish at the ongoing Olympics suffered a major blow as Aruna Quadri exited the game after losing his Round of 64 men’s singles table tennis match to Romania’s Eduard Ionescu.
The Nigerian player, ranked 16th in the world, gave up a 3-0 lead to Ionescu, who fought back to win 4-3.
Persecondnews reports that Arun’s late push in the last set wasn’t enough to see him through to the next round, as he becomes the second Nigerian to bow out of the Paris Olympics after an abysmal performance.
Aruna’s best outing at the Olympic Games was at Rio 2016 in Brazil, where he defied odds to reach the quarterfinals of the men’s singles as the first African to attain that height.
The Nigerian duo of Offiong Edem and Fatimo Bello will be in action on Sunday and Monday, respectively, in the women’s singles event.
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