By Francis Ajuonuma
As actions continue at the ongoing Lagos International Badminton Classics at Molade Okoya-Thomas Multi-purpose Indoor Sports Hall, Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere,
President of the Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN), Francis Orbih is impressed with the challenges Nigerian players have put up in the competition despite playing against more exposed players from Asia and Europe.
Orbih, who spoke with ThisNigeria, while assessing the performance of Nigerian players in this year’s edition of the Classics, said it has been encouraging and gives hope for a brighter future ahead for the game of badminton in the country.
“So far I’m impressed with the performance of our players in this tournament. It has been encouraging and as you can see some of them have won games against their more exposed Asian players which is an indication that our players are progressing and can get better with more tournaments like this,” Orbih said.
” When we started, we knew it was going to be very difficult because our players don’t have the required experience and exposure but today
You will also agree with me that over the years, we’ve had three players who went to the Olympics and a few who are playing at the international scene and as such the inferiority complex is no longer there”, he noted.
On his expectations for finals on Saturday Orbih said: ” We’ve already seen some quality games in the qualifying series and people should expect explosive and keenly contested matches in the finals.
Also reacting to the chances of Nigerian players garnering enough points to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics, he banked on Anuoluwa Opeyori who is the African champion and ranked 100, in the world, as Nigeria’s only Olympic Games hopeful.
”To tell you the truth, the chances of our players are very slim because we have a few Nigerians who are playing internationally and it’s the number of international matches you play that contributes to your qualification for the Olympics, he explains.
The BFN boss commended the Lagos State Government for supporting the federation in hosting the classics and appealed to government at all levels to invest more in sports and corporate Nigeria to complement government efforts towards sports development.
