Over 200 badminton players from 23 countries will converge in Lagos to participate in the 4th edition of the Lagos International Badminton Classic (LIBC) which gets underway on Wednesday 18th of July, with  the finals to hold on Saturday 21st of July, 2018. The championship is expected to attract top players from India, Malaysia, Australia amongst others that have already made entries.

It is expected that the competition will be a good test of the Nigerian players, and also help improve their World ranking as the face top players from around the World
The highlight of the 3rd edition of LIBC was the Mixed Doubles finals where Misha and Svetlna Zilberman, the mother and son pair from Israel defeated Duarte Nuno Anio and Sofia Setim of Portugal in a pulsating finals. The men’s singles finals also had the fans on their feet when Chittaboina Rahul Yadav had to battle fellow country man Karan Rajan for the gold.
Speaking towww.badmintonnigeria.org President Badminton Federation of Nigeria, Francis Orbih admitted that the 2018 edition will be more competitive than previous editions with the 25,000 dollars prize money described as more attractive than the last three editions. Also an increase in the number of participating countries is expected to raise the competitiveness of the championship. He however admitted that he is keen to see the performance of the Nigerian players after having participated in different foreign training tours and international competitions. The players are currently in Accra participating in the Ghana International Badminton Championship, which they intend to use as final preparation for the LIBC that will be their first major competition at home this year.

The Federation President also added that in an effort to ensure good officiating for the tournament, arrangements have been finalized for BWF instructors: Dajee Annirao and Harriet Samugabi to take a 3-day umpire training course to help put all the officiating officials in top shape.
It is interesting to note that the last time an Umpire’s course was organized in Nigeria by BWF was in Bauchi 18 years ag during the All Africa Senior Badminton Championship in year 2000.