Opeyori, Adesokan Rule at Golden Star National Badminton Championship as Lagos Emerges Overall Winners.

Top seeds- Anuoluwapo Opeyori and Dorcas Adesokan – emerged the winners of the second edition of the Katsina Golden Star National Badminton Championship, which came to an end at the weekend.

Opeyori defeated Eneojo Abah 21-16, 21-19 in the men’s singles event, while Adesokan beat Deborah Ukeh 21-12, 18-21, 21-10 to remain top on the rankings and smile home with N150, 000 each.

Abah and Ukeh, who finished second also got N100, 00 each for their efforts, while joint third and fourth got N70, 000 each. The 5th to 8th place finishers (four) got 40,000 each, while the 9th to 16th (8 players got 10,000 each).

In the men’s doubles event, Opeyori partnered Godwin Olofua to beat the pair of Habeeb Bello and Usman Isiaq 21-11, 21-15 to cart home the top prize. In the women’s doubles event, Adesokan joined forces with Augustina Sunday to defeat the pair of Deborah Ukeh and Peace Orji.

In the mixed doubles, Abah and Orji combined to beat Ciroma Emmanuel and Zainab Alabi 21-11, 21-14.

Winners in the doubles event got 70,000 each, second place finishers got 45,000 each, while the joint third and fourth (four players) got 30,000 each. The 5th to 8th place finishers (eight players) got N15, 000.

In one of the major highpoints of the tournament, two of the junior players that went to Algeria for the Africa Youth Games made it to the quarter finals in the men’s singles event. The boys are: Daniel Christopher from Lagos State and Balarabe Umar from Bauchi State, Umar went on and made it to the semifinals of the championship.

Also from the girl’s junior team, Zainab Alabi from Kwara state made it to the semi-finals in the women’s singles.

President of the Badmiton Federation of Nigeria, Francis Orbih commended the players for putting up their best at the championship. He commended the junior players who gave a good account of themselves urging them to do better in subsequent championships.

“I must commend the players for the good job they have dome at the tournament. Their performance shows that the future of badminton is bright in Nigeria. The BFN will continue to partner sponsors who will invest in the development of the game and players.

“The junior players have also done well for themselves and hopefully, they will become the stars and ambassadors of the game in future,” Orbih added.

Meanwhile, Lagos State emerged the overall winners with two gold medals in the men’s singles and men’s doubles as well as a bronze medal in the men’s single. Ogun State was second with one gold medal and one bronze medal.