By Jennifer Amarachi
At the Stade de France, Team Nigeria successfully opened their Paralympic Games Paris 2024 campaign on Thursday by winning fair matches in badminton and table tennis.
The nation got off to a bad start when Bly Twomey and Joshua Stacey of Great Britain defeated Kayode Alabi and Faith Obazuaye in the table tennis mixed doubles on Thursday morning, 3-1 (11-6, 7-11, 11-6, 11-6).
Chigozie Nnanna gave his countrymen cause for celebration as he defeated Marcel Adam of Germany 2-0 (21-12, 21-15) in the men’s badminton men’s singles SL4 in Group C. Mariam Bolaji defeated Mandeep Kaur of India 2-0 (21-8, 21-14) in the women’s singles SL3 in Group B to give Nigeria its second badminton victory.
In the men’s doubles MD14 Round of 16, Chinese opponents Peng Weinan and Huang Jiaxin defeated Victor Farinloye and Kayode Alabi 2-0 (11-9, 11-5, 11-8) to cause Nigeria to suffer its second defeat in table tennis.
Beginning on Wednesday, August 28 with a vibrant opening ceremony, the Paralympic Games will take place in 22 sports and feature 549 events involving 4,463 competitors until September 8.
