It was another successful outing again for the Badminton Federation of Nigeria as over 200 players converged at the Teslim Balogun Stadium lagos for the Championship that saw Isreali Mishkla Zilberman confirm his supremacy over Ramadan Misbun of Malaysia to emerged winner of the Men’s singles event of the 4th Lagos international Badminton Classics.
In the women’s category, It was double celebration for Isreal, Ksenia Polikarpova edged past Sri Krishna Priya of India to become 2018 champion. With her success in the competition, she praised the standard of the championship.
‘I am happy with my performance in the tournament. I have worked hard this year and I am very satisfied with the results I have recorded so far. Like 2017 and previous editions of the Lagos International Badminton Classics where the Indian’s have dominated the singles event, they beat all comers to the medals available in the Women’s double, Men’s double and Mixed doubles.
India duo of Kuhoo Garg and Riya Mookerjee beat fellow countrymen Harika Veludurthi and Karishma Wadkar to the prize money at stake in the Women’s doubles .Attri Manu and Reddy Sumeeth combined well to edge past Vaibhaav and Prakash Wadkash to win the Men’s double in an all Indian affair.
Attrimanu wowed the crowd as he appeared in the mixed doubles final alongside Mammesh for his second victory of the day beating Roham Kapoor and Kuhoo Carg to confirm India’s dominance in the tournament. Nigeria’s representatives Faridah Umar and Iyanu Olukayode played semi finals in the women’s doubles and won a bronze medal while Dorcas Adesokan made it to the semi finals in the women’s singles and also won a bronze medal.
Nigeria’s no 1 men’s player made it to the quarter finals in the men’s singles. In a chat with journalists the president badminton Federation of Nigeria Francis Orbih Esq said he was satisfied with Team Nigeria’s effort at the just concluded tournament even though there is still a lot of work to do. According to the President, what the Nigerian players exhibited in lagos showed that Nigeria is taking back its rightful position in the game of badminton in Africa. He said the team has made good progress since the inception of the new board and therefore appealed to corporate Nigeria to continue to support the Federation in its effort towards repositioning the game of Badminton in the country.