Nigeria’s table tennis star, Quadri Aruna settled for a silver following his 4-2 loss to Singapore’s Ning Gao in the final of the men’s singles on Sunday.
Aruna was down in the first two games 7-11, 8-11 but came back to close the game at 2-2 taking the third and fourth game. Gao’s resilience in the fifth earned him his first gold medal at the Commonwealth Games.
The Nigerian will rue his chances after leading the fifth set 7-5 with an opportunity to lead the match 3-2.
The 35 year old finished the game off with a ( 11-7,11-8, 5-11, 3-11, 11-9, 11-5) victory over Quadri Aruna. The Singaporean veteran had previously won silver medals at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi 2010 and Glasgow 2014.
Earlier, Gao combined with Yu Mengyu to beat England’s Liam Pitchford and Ho Tin-Tin 3-0 (12-10, 12-10, 11-9) in the mixed doubles final.
India’s Sharath Achanta won the bronze in the men’s singles following his 4-1 (11-7, 11-9, 9-11,11-6, 12-10) win over England’s Samuel Walker.
Team Nigeria finished with a total of 24 medals, 9 gold, 9 silver and 6 bronze medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia.
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