Izuchukwu Okosi
Nigeria on Monday clinched seven medals at the 2024 All Africa Senior Badminton Championship in Cairo, Egypt with Anuoluwapo Opeyori bagging his fifth African title and the third consecutive in three years.
Opeyori was the star of the tournament and has followed his victories at the All Africa Senior Badminton Championships Men’s Singles title in Port Harcourt in 2019, the 2019 All Africa Games MS title in Morocco and Uganda and 2023 hosted by South Africa with another impressive showing.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelNigeria’s male team in the team event narrowly lost to Algeria in the Finals even after securing the first two of five games, thereby settling for Silver.
The Women’s team picked a valuable bronze after losing the Semifinals to the Ugandan Women’s team.
In the Individual event, Opeyori was also starring brilliantly as he stormed through to the finals by beating compatriot Victor Ikechukwu 21-13, 19-21, 21-9 to rekindle an old rivalry with Mauritian Georges Julien Paul where he again asserted his dominance by beating Paul 23-21, 11-21, 21-16 to take the coveted MS crown for the third time in a row and his fifth African title.
The Nigerian duo of Yunusa Momoh and Godwin Olofua did the country proud by beating Mauritius players, Melvin Appiah and Tejraj Pultoo 21-17, 21-15 to reach the final.
They were, however, unable to subdue the duo of Africa’s number one pair of Algeria’s Kociela Mammeri and Sabri Medel, thereby losing 12-21, 8-21 to clinch the silver in the Men’s Doubles event.
In the Women’s Doubles, Nigeria’s Dorcas Ajoke Adesokan and Sofiyat Obanishola lost out narrowly to Ugandan’s Husina Kobugabe and Gladys Mbabazi 21-18, 19-21, 18-21 after fighting gallantly in the semifinals to get a spot on the podium for the bronze medal.
In the Mixed Doubles event, yet another fresh pair of Aliyu Alhaji Shehu and Deborah Ukeh-Divine lost the semifinal match to home team of Adham Hatem Gamel and Doha Hany of Egypt 9-21, 12-21 (0-2) to take the bronze medal for their efforts.
In all, Nigeria was able to take home an impressive total of 1 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze medals for relatively new pairs in all the doubles categories.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
