Team Nigeria Table Tennis and Boxer, Millicent Agboegbulem are both in the quarter-finals of their various events at the ongoing Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.
The Table Tennis team consisting of Omotayo Olajide, Bode Abiodun and Azeez Jamilu were given a bye into the Men’s team Quarter final and will play Australia, who beat Sri Lanka 3-0 in the Round of 16 on Friday.
ACLSports.com gathered that the trio of Omotayo Olajide, Bode Abiodun and Azeez Jamilu are joined by veteran player, Segun Toriola as they prepare for the quarter-final on Saturday.
In the female boxing event, Millicent Agboegbulem defeated Tonga’s Salote Huni by a 5:0 (Judge 1: 30-25, Judge 2: 30-27, Judge 3, 30-27, Judge 4: 30-26, Judge 5: 30-27) decision to progress to the quarter-finals of Women’s 75kg. While in the 53kg, Fatima Yakubu failed to lift 77kg in her second and third attempts in the snatch thereby leaving her out of the medal table.
Meanwhile, Minister of Youth and Sports Barrister Solomon Dalung is confident that Nigeria will surpass its past record at the XXI Commonwealth Games in Australia.
Dalung gave the assurance despite the country’s poor start at the Games in Gold Coast which enters Day 3 on Saturday.
“The Games have just started and our team has prepared very well. Although the early start has not been quite impressive as we expected, that does not suggest that that’s what we are expecting. We are quite hopeful that we will surpass our records in this Games. We should not be discouraged by the poor start. The team is in high spirit and the officials are dutifully working round the clock. Our aim is to make the country proud.”
Dalung was accompanied by the President, Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) Engr Habu Gumel, Permanent Secretary of the Sports Ministry Mr Olusade Adesola and the Director Planning, Monitoring and Implementation Mrs Hauwa Kulu Akinyemi to cheer the boxer.
