Nigeria finishes 74th at Tokyo Olympics, 8th in Africa

Team Nigeria was placed 74th at the end of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games on Sunday and eighth best among the 54 African nations at the Games.

The 32nd Olympics saw Nigeria add two medals to her modest haul at the Games.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Team Nigeria won two medals – one silver and one bronze – after being represented by 55 athletes.

While Ese Brume won the bronze medal from the women’s long jump event, Blessing Oborududu won the silver medal from the wrestling event’s women’s freestyle 68kg.

The Games, which began on July 23 and ended on Sunday, had 93 of the 206 participating teams making it to the medals table, including 13 of the 54 from Africa.

Although issues of administrative laxity affected the performances of Team Nigeria in Tokyo, some of the athletes punched through the logjam to show flashes of their brilliance.

Twenty-one-year-old Enoch Adegoke became the first Nigerian to qualify for the men’s 100 meters final in 25 years, and 17-year-old Abiola Ogunbanwo broke the national record in swimming when she posted  59.74 seconds in the women’s 100m freestyle in the swimming event.

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However, the big guns failed to live up to the hype that heralded them into the competition.

It began with Blessing Okagbare’s suspension after she tested positive for human growth hormone.

The ouster of Aruna Quadri in the third round of the men’s singles of the table tennis event was also a shocker, followed by the pinfall loss of Odunayo Adekuruoye in her first bout in Tokyo.

Among the African countries, Nigeria finished the Olympics placed eighth on the medals log.

Kenya, the highest-ranked African country, placed 19th position overall with 4 gold medals, two silver, and two bronze.

Uganda follows with two gold medals, one silver, and one bronze while South Africa, Egypt, and Ethiopia complete the top 5 performers for the continent.

The US edged China to finish at the top of the log with 39 gold, 41 silver, and 33 bronze medals.

Japan, the host country, finished third while Great Britain and Russia finished fourth and fifth respectively.

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