Hopes of Nigeria winning medals at the Rio Olympic games are gradually fading away, with Africa’s Olympic appearance record holder and one of Nigeria’s medal hopefuls in the table tennis event of the Rio Olympic, Segun Toriola, crashing out of the table tennis men’s singles event of the Rio Olympic Games after losing to Japan’s Nowa Koki in the round two on Sunday.
Toriola, 41, beat Koki 9-11 in the first set before the Japanese rallied back to dominate the second set 11-5.
Koki also won the third set 11-7 before Toriola triumphed in the fourth set, leaving scores at 4-11.
At that point, it appeared the Nigerian would overpower his challenger for the rest of the match. But Koki was in no mood to concede.
The Japanese overpowered Toriola 11-6, 11-1 in the fifth and sixth sets respectively to bring total scores at 4-2.
Toriola was one of Nigeria’s medal prospects and his ouster is a big setback for Nigeria’s ambition to return home with medals.
Toriola, who is making a record appearance in the competition, had on Saturday beaten Dmitrij Prokopcov of the Czech Republic 4-2 in the Men’s Singles Round One.
Two Nigerian female table tennis players, Funke Oshonaike and Edem Offiong had earlier crashed out of the women’s singles.
