Nigeria’s table tennis team won’t be at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics following their failure to qualify for the team event yesterday.
The trio of Aruna Quadri, Segun Toriola and Olajide Omotayo suffered 3-2 defeat in the hand of their Polish counterparts in their five-game contest at the 2020 ITTF World Team Qualification Tournament in Gondomar, Portugal.
Toriola and Omotayo were the first casualties as Nigerian team’s first double event 3-1 (11-9, 12-10, 9-11, 11-2) to Poland’s pair of Samuel Kulczycki and Marek Badowski.
Aruna Quadri also suffered a shock loss Poland’s star akub Dyjas who is ranked 71 3-1 (11-7, 10-12, 13-11, 11-5).
However Nigeriathen foughtback in their next two singles clashes as Omotayo whitewashed Marek Badowski (9-11, 17-15, 11-6, 11-7), while Quadri made a meal Samuel Kulczycki (11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-5) to level the score.
Meanwhile Segun Toriola failed to win the decider chance , losing to Dyjas (10-12, 11-8, 11-6, 11-8) to make it 3-2 and send Poland through.