All Africa Senior Badminton Championships begin today in Port Harcourt

Eighteen countries are set to participate in this year’s All Africa Senior Badminton Championships, which will commence today at the Diette Spiff Indoor Hall, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.Taking part in the championship, which is expected to feature the best male and female Badminton players from the continent, are Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Congo, Congo DRC, Eritrea, Egypt Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.

Others include Kenya, Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the hosts, Nigeria.18 players in both the male and female categories, including the country’s male’s number one player, Anuoluwapo Opeyori, will represent Team Nigeria. Others are Godwin Olofua, Eneojo Abah, Clement Krobakpo, Habeeb Bello, Aliyu Shehu, Gideon Babalola, Kayode Mope and Isaac Minaphee.

In the female cadre are Dorcas Adesokan, Deborah Ukeh, Peace Orji, Chinenye Ibere, Amin Christopher, Sofiat 0banisola, Ramatu Yakubu, Zainab Alabi and Augustina Sunday.
Head Coach, Benjamin Orakpo at a media briefing yesterday assured of the players’ readiness for the championships, adding that the athletes were well aware of the magnitude of the tournament.

“We are very prepared. We have trained together over the last few weeks and we are ready to do well at this championship. It is an Olympic-point scoring event and the Badminton Federation of Nigeria is ready to get some of the players to the Tokyo Olympics next year.

“Opeyori and Olofua are second and third respectively in Africa, while they are number one in the doubles event. We hope they can amass enough points to make it to Tokyo. It is a tough task but the players have the wherewithal to berth in Tokyo,” he said, adding that the Diette Spiff Indoor Hall was ready with six new mats already laid for the championship.Meanwhile, Rivers State Commissioner of Sports, Boma Iyaye has reiterated Governor Nyesom Wike’s commitment to ensure the event is a huge success.