Nigeria's chances of winning a medal at the ongoing Tokyo Olympic Games keep diminishing by the day. Joining the likes of Uche Eke, Funke Oshonaike, Elizabeth Anyanacho, Olajide Omotayo, and others who have all crashed out is Offiong Edem who on Monday also bowed out of the women’s singles event of the table tennis competition.
Edem lost 4-1 to Lily Zhang of the U.S at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, in spite of winning the first set 15-13.
After beating Hungary’s Dora Madarasz in her opening round fixture, Edem failed to maintain the momentum as she fell 2-11 and 2-11 in the next two sets under nine minutes.
The 34-year-old Nigerian did fight back, but she could not stem the tide as she lost 8-11 and 6-11 in the fourth and fifth sets respectively.
However, Nigeria is still looking up to Athletes, Wrestling, and Basketball to redeem their hope of winning a medal at the Games.
...16 new Games-related COVID-19 cases reported
Tokyo Olympics organisers have reported 16 new COVID-19 cases linked to the Games. The Organising committee said in their Monday update that three athletes were among those who tested positive.
Organisers did not state which athletes were affected, but said they were not residents of Japan. The latest numbers bring the total of Olympics-related positive COVID-19 tests since July 1 to 148.
The Tokyo area is under a fourth coronavirus state of emergency for the duration of the Olympics.
...Typhoon set to disrupt programmes
Organisers have started rescheduling events as typhoon Nepartak was approaching the host city of Tokyo and expected to make landfall on Tuesday. Weather authorities warned of heavy rains, gale force winds and high waves which could already affect the region from Monday onwards. Rowing had all Monday events moved to Sunday, and Tuesday has also been cleared with events moved to Wednesday.
Other outdoor sports could follow as organisers are in close contact with sports federations about rescheduling and changing of the programme. For now athletes were mainly dealing with high temperatures and humidity.
Tennis on Sunday applied its extreme heat rules with longer changeover breaks and a 10-minute break before the third set.
