It is Rio Olympics Day 2 and the games are slowly gathering momentum. A quick summary of how Team Nigeria will be involved in it.
Tennis
Although our women pair of Olufunke Oshonaike and Offiong Edem appear to have crashed out in their first rounds and didn’t make it to Rio Olympics Day 2, the men’s duo of Segun Toriola and Aruna Quadri are still flying the nation’s flag. After edging out Dimitry Prokoptsov of Czech Republic, Segun Toriola takes on Koki Niwa of Japan at exactly 3pm today. Aruna Quadri takes on Yang Wang of Slovakia later on at 6.30pm. All games at the Riocentro Pavilion in Rio.
Kayaking (Canoe Slalom)
Kayaking as a sport might sound strange to us, I mean, we don’t even have a Kayaking Federation in Nigeria. You can be forgiven therefore if it hits you as a surprise that we have contingents representing us in this event. As well we should, we are surrounded by water. Quick description, Kayaking is simply moving over water using a special kind of boat called a kayak. It differs from canoeing by the sitting position of the paddlers and the number of blades on the paddle i.e both sides of the paddle are bladed. UK born Jonathan Akinyemi is our representative at the Canoe Slalom category of the Kayaking event in Rio Olympic Day 2. He was at the 2012 Olympics in London where he didn’t do very well but hey, this might be his Olympic. Time is 5.28pm today at the Olympic Whitewater Stadium.
Swimming (100m Women’s Breaststroke)
If we can have a representative at odd sounding kayaking, why not in swimming, abi? We have never really been considered a swimming powerhouse no matter how surrounded by the ocean we are. Yet, one of our earlier involvements in Rio Olympics Day 2 is in the Swimming event where our own Rachael Tonjor would be competing in Heat 1 of the Women’s 100 metre Breaststroke. While we may have the likes of USA’s Lilly King and Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte competing in this category, we can only wish our darling Rachael the very best at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium by 5.30pm today.
Football (Men)
From the Aquatics Stadium it will be straight to the Amazonia Arena in the beautiful city of Manaus where the Dream Team takes on Sweden in their second Group B encounter. It is the same Stadium where the lads overcame their fatigue and put 5 goals past the Japanese and I shudder to think how many goals they would score now that they are well rested. Football doesn’t work that way though but a win today will send the Dream Team into the quarter finals, a sight that would be a delight to the whole country. 11pm is the time, you might not want to miss it.
Basketball (Men)
From one Group B encounter to another, this time it is the Nigerian Male basketball team, D’Tigers who square up against their South American counterparts from Argentina at the Carioca Arena 1 in Rio de Janeiro. The Argentines would be banking on an overwhelming support since they are closer home but we trust our Tigers to shake off that mauling they received at the hands of the star-studded American basketball team and do the country proud. Time for that one is 2.30 am.
That is all for team Nigeria today. Enjoy the Olympics.
Courtesy: Olisa.tv
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