Nigeria’s Matthew Kuti and Favour Ojo have been knocked out of the table tennis event at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Senegal. They lost their final preliminary matches.
Kuti, who is Nigeria’s deputy captain, needed to win against Italy’s Francesco Travesan on Monday to move to the men’s singles knockout stage. Unfortunately, he lost 3-0, ending his hopes in the tournament.
Before this defeat, Kuti had a chance to revive his chances by winning 3-1 against Tunisia’s Youssef Aidli on Sunday. Earlier, he had lost 3-0 to Li Ki Ho from Hong Kong.
In the end, Kuti could not secure enough wins in Group C to advance. He joins many other African players who were also eliminated in the early rounds.
Ojo faced a similar fate. She lost her third match in the women’s singles group stage against her opponent from Hong Kong on Monday. This loss ended her chances of reaching the knockout rounds.
Only the top two players in each group could qualify for the next stage.
With both athletes out, Nigeria will not have any players competing for table tennis medals at the Games. There were hopes that Kuti and Ojo would make a strong impact.
Out of the 15 African players that started the competition, only Tania Morice from Algeria and Abdelmalk Elsayed from Egypt are still in the running.
They will now carry Africa’s hopes for a medal finish. Both players aim to match or exceed the quarter-final performance of Nigeria’s Ojo Onaolapo at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore.
Overall, Africa faced significant challenges in the men’s and women’s singles events.
In the men’s competition, players like Aylan Goudjil from Algeria, Ganiou Abdourahaman from Benin Republic, Amador Ferrer from Senegal, Youssef Aidli from Tunisia, and Joseph Sebatindira from Uganda were all knocked out in the early rounds.
The women’s event also saw many African players exit early. Yara Elbadawy from Egypt, Joanita Borteye from Ghana, Tina Andriantahina from Madagascar, Marieme Diallo from Senegal, Ela Saidi from Tunisia, and Jemimah Nakawala from Uganda could not make it through.
With Kuti and Ojo out, Nigeria will now focus on its other athletes competing in different sports at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games.
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