36-year-old Nigerian scrabble player, Wellington Jighere has won the World Scrabble Championship which held in Perth, Australia.
Jighere defeated Lewis Mackay, 30, from Cambridge, England, in the final round of the competition to become the new World Scrabble champion.
The Delta State born player won the final game with 448 points to Mackay’s 426.
Nigeria also emerged as the best team of the championship as five of its six representatives finished in top 50 players of the tournament with Ayorinde Saidu and Emmanuel Umujose placing 16th and 17th respectively.
The President of the Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF), Suleiman Garba, in a phone interview with the Vanguard, said: “It is a testimony of the potential of Nigeria as a country and the sacrifice and hard work of the board under my leadership.
“We started preparation about a year ago with seven camps which we christened Scrabble Meets to put our team in shape for the world championship and it has paid off.
“I am very proud of the Nigerian team and very proud to be Nigerian.’’
