Team Nigeria’s run of losses at the ongoing 2024 Olympic Games in Paris continued yesterday with boxer Olaitan Olaore crashing out of the men’s 92kg heavyweight event.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Olaore lost 0-5 to Kazakhstan’s Oralbay Aibek to add to his team’s misery which had begun on Wednesday in Bordeaux following Super Falcons 0-1 defeat to Brazil in women’s football match.
Aibek was really in command of the round of 16 bout at the North Paris Arena, winning all three rounds on all the five judges’ cards.
Olaore joins the Team Nigeria which sidelines Cynthia Ogunsemilore, who was disqualified after failing a doping test, and Dolapo Omole who was ruled out due to injury.
Nigeria’s top table tennis players, Quadri Aruna and Olajide Omotayo, have also been eliminated from the men’s singles event after losing their opening matches.
Aruna, who was competing in his fourth Olympic Games, faced a tough match against Romania’s Eduard Ionescu in the round of 64. Despite a strong start, winning the first three sets 11-8, 11-9, and 11-6, Aruna ultimately lost 4-3. Ionescu made a remarkable comeback, taking the next four sets 11-8, 12-10, 11-9, and 13-11 to secure victory.
This marks the second meeting between Aruna and Ionescu, with their first encounter at the 2024 European Champions League in March ending in a win for the Romanian teenager.
In a similar fate, Omotayo was defeated in the round of 64 by Iran’s Noshad Alamiyan, losing 4-1.
Omotayo won the first set 11-6 but then lost the next four sets 11-5, 11-4, 12-10, and 11-8. This marks Omotayo’s second consecutive early exit, having also been eliminated at the same stage in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
With these losses, Nigeria’s hopes for a podium finish in the men’s table tennis event at the Paris Olympic Games have been dashed.
