Odunayo Adekuoroye lost her quarterfinal women’s wrestling 57 kg fight, narrowly missing out on a place in the semifinals on Thursday.
Her loss further blighted Nigeria’s medal hopes in the event following Blessing Oborududu’s futile quest for a medal in the women’s freestyle 68 kg earlier this week.
After defeating Fouzia Aouissi by a VIN (Victory by Injury) in the second round also on Friday, Odunayo was looking good in the quarterfinal against China’s Kexin Hong, leading 4-0 at some point.
But the witty Hong came fighting back, scoring 8 points in quick succession and eventually winning the fight 10-8.
She lost to Sweden’s Sofia Mattsson at the same stage of the 2016 Olympics.
Bello, Otuedo fail to advance in canoeing
Nigeria also exited the women’s canoe single 200m event on Thursday, as both
Ayomide Bello and Beauty Akinaere Otuedo failed to progress to the semifinals.
Bello finished 6th in the second quarterfinal with a time of 49.24s, while Otuedo came in 8th in the 3rd heat, crossing the line in 1:01.82.
Ibadin out of 800m
Edose Ibadin missed out on a place in the semifinals of men’s 800m after the Nigerian record holder finished 7th in his repechage heat with a time of 1:49.09 on Friday.
Botswana’s Kethobogile Haingura took the automatic spot with a time of 1:45.05.
4x100m relay teams flop
Nigeria’s hopes of securing medals in the 4x100m relay events came crashing on Thursday.
The quartet of Favour Ashe, Kanyinsola Ajayi, Alaba Akintola, and Usheoritse Itsekiri finished 7th with a season’s best of 38.20s in the men’s heat, which was not enough for them to go through.
South Africa grabbed an automatic spot in the final, finishing 2nd in an SB of 37.94s, with the USA winning the race in 37.47s.
In the women’s category, the quartet of Justina Eyakpobeyan, Favour Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma, and Tima Godless finished 6th in heat 2, running a Season’s Best of 42.70s, but missing out on an automatic position into the final.
Lawal misses out on weightlifting medal
Folashade Lawal missed out on a medal in women’s 59kg weightlifting, finishing 5th in the event with a total lift of 230kg in the Snatch and Clean & Jerk.
She came so close to finishing on the podium, missing out on 3rd place by 5kg overall.
She gave it her all, smashing her personal best in the Clean and Jerk by 5 kg.
Lawal, however, didn’t lift her two attempts of 103 kg, finishing the Snatch with a lift of 100 kg. She will start the Clean & Jerk with 120kg.