Nigeria loses titles as WESPAC ends in U.S.

Nigeria’s hope of retaining the individual and team titles at the World English Scrabble Players Association Championship (WESPAC) in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. was dashed on matchday four of the competition, which ended yesterday.

Hosts, U.S., won the competition after five days of the action at the world’s gaming capital.

Former world champion, Wellington Jighere, who topped the table for three days, lost his last two rounds of games to Adam Logan of Canada and David Eldar of Australia to end the competition in fourth position.

The two back to back defeats means Jighere, the 2015 world champion, did not play the best of seven final yesterday. He secured 22 wins from 32 games to end the championship in fourth position.

David Eldar, a former world champion from Australia, faced HarshanLamabadusuriya of England in the best of seven final.

HarshanLamabadusuriya, in his first world championship final, won one game more than Wellington Jighere, while David Eldar reached the final with 22 wins and a draw.

Nsikak Solomon Etim ended the competition as 14th best player, Enoch Nwali ended as number 17, TuoyoMayuku occupied the 25th spot and Eta Karo at number 35. They were Nigeria’s top five players at the championship.

Charles HaizelTachie-Menson was Ghana’s highest ranked player at number 8, while Patrick MulemenaMpundu of Zambia finished in the 65th position to end as the best player from Southern Africa.