July 26, (THEWILL) – Dorcas Adesokan, who is Nigeria’s representative in the women’s singles event of Badminton Games at the XXXII Summer Games in Tokyo, lost her first group game to Clara Azurmendi on Monday.
As THEWILL reported, Adesokan was drawn in Group C with 7th seed South Korean An Se-young and Clara Azurmendi.
Azurmendi, her first round opponent, who is the Badminton World Federation (BWF)’s 67th ranked player, won the bronze medal at the Baku 2015 European Games in the women’s singles event and her first international title at the 2016 Bulgarian International tournament.
In their opening group matchup, Adesokan fell by 0-2 (10-21, 2-21) to Azurmendi in the early Monday events. The loss to the Spaniard puts the Nigerian in a tight corner and to boost her qualification chances, she will go into her second group game against the other athlete Se-young knowing it is a must-win.
It will be an uphill task for Adesokan on Tuesday, who is ranked 89th by BWF. Her South Korean opponent, on the other hand, is ranked 7th and was awarded the 2019 Most Promising Player of the Year by the BWF. Korea’s News1 agency reported in 2017 that Se-young is the first middle school student ever to qualify for Korea’s national badminton team.
It will be up to Adesokan to improve on her performance against Azurmendi if she must continue to nurse the hopes of a podium finish, the first for the country in the Badminton sport. It is a high target and will require everything she can muster on Tuesday.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
