Kuti and Ojo exit Dakar table tennis as Nigeria’s Youth Olympic campaign reaches its next test

Nigeria’s Matthew Kuti and Favour Ojo have completed their table tennis singles campaigns at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games after losing their final preliminary-round matches. Kuti, Nigeria’s deputy captain, went down 3–0 to Italy’s Francesco Trevisan, while Ojo’s final group defeat left her outside the top two places required to advance. Their exits close one part of Nigeria’s table-tennis programme, but the tournament’s wider value is the experience young players gain by facing international opposition on an Olympic stage.

The match report from Dakar records the final group results. The International Table Tennis Federation tournament page lists the event dates as October 31 to November 5 at Dakar Expo and links to draws and results. This is the first Olympic sport event to be staged on African soil, giving the competition a significance beyond its medal table.

What the group stage required

Each singles player had to navigate a group before the knockout rounds. That format leaves little room for a slow start: a player can recover from one poor match, but every result matters because only the leading two in a group progress. Kuti needed another win in his final fixture to strengthen his route forward, while Ojo had already been placed under pressure by earlier results. Their final defeats confirmed that neither would continue in singles.

For younger athletes, this type of tournament can be a demanding lesson in managing momentum. A match may turn on a short run of points, a change in serve placement or a decision to attack a ball that would be safer to return. Coaches can use video and match notes to identify patterns—how a player responds after losing a close game, whether a serve is being read, or how quickly a strategy changes—without reducing the experience to the final score alone.

A milestone setting for African youth sport

Dakar’s hosting role gives African teams an unusual home-continent opportunity to compete at a major multi-sport event without travelling to another region. The ITTF describes the Games as the first Olympic sports event in Africa. Local audiences can watch young athletes from across the world in person, while African players test themselves against opponents whose styles and training environments may differ from their own.

The Nigeria team was assembled across six sports. In an October 28 briefing, the Federal Ministry of Information identified Kuti and Ojo as the country’s table-tennis representatives and outlined the broader delegation. Their table-tennis results are one part of a wider campaign that also includes athletics, boxing, cycling, swimming and beach volleyball.

What comes next for Nigeria

The tournament does not end with these two singles exits. Other Nigerian athletes remain in competition in their sports, and table tennis still offers an opportunity to review the team’s preparation and development pathway. For Kuti and Ojo, the immediate work is likely to involve assessing the matches, discussing decisions with their coaches and returning to domestic competition with specific targets to practise.

A useful post-event review looks at more than whether a player advanced. It can compare serve effectiveness, unforced errors, recovery between games and response to pressure. Those details help an athlete turn a short international campaign into a practical plan for the next event. They also give coaches a clearer sense of where young players need tournament exposure, technical work or stronger support during travel and preparation.

There is no need to present an early exit as a triumph, but it should not erase the level of the challenge. Kuti and Ojo represented Nigeria in an event that brought leading youth players from many countries to Dakar. Their campaign has ended in singles, while the wider Youth Olympic programme continues. For Nigerian table tennis, the next measure will be how lessons from this experience translate into training, selection and performance at future competitions.