Team Nigeria had a fine start at the All Africa Senior Badminton Championships at the Diette Spiff Indoor Hall, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The South Africa team was clearly under-classed in the mixed team championship event by team Nigeria, suffering a 5-0 defeat at the championship debut.
In the mixed doubles event, duo of Enejoh Abah and Peace Orji, routed Bongani von Badenstein and Michelle Butler-Emmet 21-15, 21-10.
In the men’s singles, Anuoluwapo Opeyori defeated Ruan Snyman 21-12, 21-14, while Dorcas Adesokan beat Johanita Scholtz 21-13, 21-15 in the Women’s Singles.
Team Nigeria elicited the same feat in the men’s doubles event when the duo of Opeyori and Olofua beat the pair of Von Bodenstein and Jared Elliot 21-16, 21-17, while Deborah Ukeh and Adesokan recorded a 21-19, 21-14 victory over Elme De Villiers and Butler-Emmet, completing a 5-0 win against South Africa.
The result of the other fixtures of the day:
Algeria 5:0 Togo
Ghana 5:0 Cote d’Ivoire
Mauritius 5:0 Benin Republic
Egypt 5:0 DR Congo
According to the Badminton Federation of Nigeria, about 14 countries are already in Port Harcourt for the championships, with a few more countries expected to arrive on Tuesday for the singles event.
Team Nigeria assistant coach, George Shitta, believes that the team can win all gold medals at stake at the championship, which will help them clinch qualifications for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
“The opening game against South Africa went fine, but our strategy is to take each game as it comes. Our desire is to win the championships by picking all the gold medals at stake. We hope more fans will turn up tomorrow (today) to cheer the Team Nigerian to victory.”
Featured image source: Busy Buddies