Team Nigeria desire is to win the championship and they started in victory defeating South Africa 5-0 in the Mixed Team Championship at the All Africa Senior Badminton Championships, which began in Port Harcourt, River State on Monday.
In the Mixed Doubles, the pair of Enejoh Abah and Peace Orji defeated Bongani von Bodenstein and Michelle Butler-Emmet 21-15, 21-10.
In the Men’s Single, Anuoluwapo Opeyori beat Ruan Snyman 21-12, 21-14, while Dorcas Adesokan defeated Johanita Scholtz 21-13, 21-15 in the Women’s Singles.
In the Men’s Double, the duo of Opeyori and Olofua dispatched Von Bodenstein and Jared Elliot 21-16, 21-17, while Deborah Ukeh and Adesokan scored a major victory 21-19, 21-14 over Elme De Villiers and Butler-Emmet to complete the 5-0 rout of the South Africans.
In some other games played, Algeria beat Togo 5-0, Ghana defeated Cote d’ Ivoire 5-0, Mauritius beat Benin 5-0, while Egypt beat the Congo Democratic Republic 5-0. The team event will end on Wednesday.
According to officials of the Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN), 14 countries are already on the ground, while others are expected to arrive in Nigeria on Wednesday to participate in the singles event, which is expected to begin on Thursday.
Team Nigeria’s Assistant Coach, George Shitta commended the players for the victory and noted that they will take the games as they come.
He stated that picking all the gold medal at stake is the aim of the Nigerian team, assuring with good performances, it is achievable.
“The opening game against South Africa went fine and our strategy is to take each game as it comes.
Our desire is to win championships by picking all the gold medals at stake.
We hope more fans will turn up tomorrow to cheer the Nigerian team to victory.”
Shitta also said that sweeping the gold medals would help Nigerian players get the needed points that would help aid their appearance at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
