Ugandan badminton ace Edwin Ekiring suffered to straight 2-0 losses to Frenchman Brice Leverdez and Hong Kong’s Wong Wing Ki to settle for third in the Group F standings of the men’s singles at the London Olympics on Monday.
After the 21-10, 21-8 loss to the latter, Ekiring, the first Ugandan to play badminton at the Games piled the excuses of his failure on his foster parents not getting match tickets and him not having his coach. But that was not Ki’s business.
The seed 16 went on to beat Leverdez 21-11, 21-6 enroute securing a slot at the last 16 round on point difference of +39 having won 84 and lost only 45 in his two games.
Ki will face Denmark’s Peter Gade in another thriller at the Wembley Arena. Gade beat Portugal’s Pedro Martins 21-14, 21-8 to book the anticipated date today.
In the 2012 German Open, Ki defeated Sony Dwi Kuncoro to proceed to the last 16. He was then in superb form to claim a 21-9, 21-17, victory against 2010 World Champion Chen Jin, which sets him up with a quarter-final match with Jan O Jorgensen.
Jorgensen ended the giant killing run of Ki when he defeated the Hong Kong shuttler 21-17, 21-11.