Team Nigeria’s streak 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.
According to journalists, Olaore lost 0-5 to Kazakhstan's Oralbay Aibek, adding to his team's despair, which began on Wednesday in Bordeaux after the Super Falcons were defeated 0-1 by Brazil in a women's football match.
Aibek dominated the round of 16 match at the North Paris Arena, winning all three rounds on five judges' cards.
Olaore joins Team Nigeria which sidelines Cynthia Ogunsemilore, who was disqualified for failing a doping test, and Dolapo Omole, who was ruled out due to an 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 difficult encounter 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 eventually fell 4-3. Ionescu made an incredible comeback, winning the next four sets 11-8, 12-10, 11-9, and 13-11 to secure victory.
In a similar fate, Omotayo was eliminated in the round of 64 by Noshad Alamiyan of Iran, 4-1.
Omotayo won the opening set 11-6, but then lost the following four by 11-5, 11-4, 12-10, and 11-8. This is Omotayo's second consecutive early exit, having previously been eliminated at the same level in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Nigeria's aspirations of finishing on the podium in the men's table tennis event at the Paris Olympics have been crushed as a result of these losses.
