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Oshonaike, Edem scale table tennis preliminaries

By Christian Okpara
07 August 2016   |   3:50 am
Nigeria’s pair of Offiong Edem and Funke Oshonaike made it to Round 1 of the women’s Singles at the on-going Rio Olympic Games in Brazil, handing their opponents defeats in the Table Tennis event yesterday
Nigeria's Olofunke Oshonaike eyes the ball in her women's singles qualification round table tennis match at the Riocentro venue during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro on August 6, 2016. Jim WATSON / AFP

Nigeria’s Olofunke Oshonaike eyes the ball in her women’s singles qualification round table tennis match at the Riocentro venue during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro on August 6, 2016.<br />Jim WATSON / AFP

Nigeria’s pair of Offiong Edem and Funke Oshonaike made it to Round 1 of the women’s Singles at the on-going Rio Olympic Games in Brazil, handing their opponents defeats in the Table Tennis event yesterday

Edem was too strong for her counterpart from the Fiji Islands, Sally Yee, winning 4-0.

On her part, Oshonaike’s opponent, Lebanon’s Mariana Sahakian initially led the game, before the Nigerian came back to finish with a 4-3 victory.

Oshonaike, who is making her sixth and final appearance at the Olympics, was expected to go against Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico in her Round 1 match later yesterday, just as Edem engages Viktoria Pavlovich in a battle of superiority by 7.15pm.

Other African representatives in the preliminaries also scaled through to the next round, as Congo’s Xing Han out-served Ian Lariba of the Philippines (4-0), while Egypt’s Dina Meshref overpowered Tunisia’s Safa Saidani (4-0) to advance from the first stage.

Meshref will face Thailand’s Nanthana Komwong, as her compatriot Nadine El-Dawlatly squares off with Petra Lovas of Hungary. Han was due to face Thailand’s Suthasini Sawettabut later in the evening.

Seven-time Olympian Segun Toriola was billed to begin his campaign in Round 1 of the men’s singles late yesterday against Czech Republic’s Dimitry Prokoptsov. The veteran will hope to record a much better performance than his London 2012 feat.

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