The unexpected departure of Quadri Aruna and Olajide Omotayo from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games has been a topic of much discussion.
Despite a promising start, both players faced defeats that cut their journey short in the Men’s Singles event.
Aruna’s match against Romanian Eduard Ionescu was particularly dramatic, as he lost his initial lead and the match with a final score of 4-3.
Similarly, Omotayo’s match against Iran’s Noshad Alamiyan ended in a 4-1 loss, marking his continued struggle at the Olympic level.
An official present at the event shared insights, suggesting that Aruna’s deviation from his usual form contributed to his loss.
The official noted that Aruna’s shots were not hitting their mark, and Omotayo’s strategy did not account for his opponent’s strengths.
He, however, said that the idea of training in Europe has not paid off for the table tennis team as training for most of the fantastic outings in major tournaments was done in Lagos. “When Aruna got to the quarterfinal of Rio 2016, he trained at the Knock-Up hall of the Lagos National Stadium and this was done under strict rules that the hall was locked whenever they were training. But going to Europe, there were lots of distractions from other teams because I learnt that the venue where they trained in Germany had lots of other teams training at the same venue. Watching both them of play in Paris showed that nothing fantastic was done in the German training camp. So going forward, those in charge of the contingent should allow each sport to train where they are comfortable with,” he added.
Also, Offiong Edem and Fatimo Bello were edged out in the first round of the Women’s Singles after they both lost their matches 4-0 to their Brazilian and French counterparts.