Nigeria lost their first match at the ongoing Liebherr World Team Table Tennis Championships on Tuesday at Halmstad in Sweden.
Slovakia inflicted a 3-1 defeat on Nigeria to go top of Group F after winning their first three games.
Nigeria is playing in the Men’s Division Two Group F of the event alongside Argentina, Turkey, Slovakia, Australia and Bulgaria.
The Nigerian team won their first two games in Group F against Argentina (3-1) and Turkey (3-0) but couldn’t maintain their impressive run at the event against Slovakia.
Veteran Segun Toriola was beaten 3-0 in the first game against Lubomir Pistej (14-16, 8-11, 2-11) before former African champion Quadri Aruna drew level 1-1 with a win over familiar foe, Yang Wang 3-0 ( 11-3, 11-6, 11-2).
Nigeria’s youngster Olajide Omotayo, stretched his Slokavian opponent to five games but fell short in the fifth losing 3-2 to Samuel Novota. Omotayo lost 9-11, 11-7, 11-4, 10-12, 7-11 to give advantage to the Slokavians, 2-1.
Yang bounced back from his loss to Aruna Quadri to seal Slovakia’s victory with a 3-0 win over Toriola. Helpless Toriola fell 5-11, 6-11, 1-11 to hand a 3-1 victory to Slovakia.
Nigeria’s next game is against Bulgaria on Wednesday.
Teams that qualify for the finals of Division Two event will be promoted to the championship stage, which is the top tier of the World Team event.
