Oshonaike, Offiong Bow OutDESPITE being ranked 236 in the world, Nigeria's Aruna Quadri bundled out 80th placed Carlos Machado of Spain in the first round of the men's single of the table tennis event at the London 2012 Olympic Games.Quadri, who got a bye from the preliminary, which enabled him to move to the first round was never intimidated by the pedigree of his opponent, hence his determination to soar.Unfortunately, compatriots, Funke Oshonaike and Edem Offiong were edged out from the Games earlier yesterday.The Portugal-based Nigerian started the match on a strong note but it was the Spaniard who won the set 11-6.Quadri leveled up in the second game at 6-11 but the European took charge again with 11-3 win in the third game.With support from the Nigerian officials at the North Arena of the Excel Centre, Quadri won the next three matches thus: 11-13, 8-11 and 6-11 to record a 4-2 win over the highly-rated Spaniard.With this win, Quadri will today on table three, face Turkey's Bora Vang in the second round match.Despite putting up a good fight against Chinese-born Italy's Wenling Tan in what was the first round match of Games, Oshonaike at the North Arena of the Excel Centre exited the competition just as Offiong failed to record a victory in her first match.But in spite of the loss, Oshonaike, in an interview with The Guardian admitted that she was happy making the first round of the tournament after fighting hard to beat Iran's Neha Shahsavari in the preliminary stage.Although, the British fans were behind the Iranian during the encounter, the huge support base of her opponent never intimidated Oshonaike.The Iranian, who was making her debut at the Olympics stretched the experiencedOshonaike to seven full games and gained the admiration of the crowd for her efforts. But her efforts could not save her from conceding victory to Oshonaike at 11-13, 11-8, 11-8, 9-11, 11-4, 5-11, and 11-3.However, in her first round encounter against Tan yesterday, Oshonaike fell 11-7,11-5,12-10,11-1 to her opponent to exit the competition.Speaking after defeating the Iranian, Oshonaike said: 'I'm still shaking. I'm so very happy. I had to work very hard but, thank God, I managed it. Being the first Nigerian athlete to compete here, I didn't want to bring everyone down. This is my fifth Games. It's great to be in London. This is the best Games ever, for me. The crowd and the atmosphere made me tensed, but I liked that. I'm really looking forward to my next match.'Offiong met her waterloo in the preliminary stage as she fell to Egypt's Dina Meshref.
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