16th January, 2014
The Nigerian contingent at this year’s African Junior Championships, AJC, qualifying series for the West African zone have won gold medals in virtually all the categories.
In the U-12 category which is for boys only, Nigeria’s Michael Osewa clinched gold after winning all his matches in the round robin stage while Friday Gabriel won silver medal.
In the boys’ U-14 final match, Nigeria’s Christopher Itodo defeated his compatriot, Peter Lawal, 6-2, 6-2 to win the gold medal, while Gabonese Ella Avomo defeated Mali’s Aichata Keita 6-0, 6-1 in the girls’ U-14 final.
Nigerian players dominated in the U-16 category when the pair of Sylvester Emmanuel and Michael Michael played the final match. Michael won the tie 6-2, 4-3 as Sylvester retired in the second set.
It was also a ‘victory song’ for the Nigerian side in the girls’ U-16 final as UK-based Nigerian player, Elizabeth Garos Pam outstroked compatriot, Zainab Oladim 6-1, 6-0.
The second round is billed to start later today as Team Nigeria hope to continue with the dominance which they started the championship with.
National coach of the Nigerian side, Ubale Mohammed, who spoke with P.M. NEWS Sports at the venue of the competition, Abuja National Stadium said that he was satisfied with his wards’ performance and hopes to consolidate on this when the second leg resumes.
He also maintained that his players will not ‘drop their guard’ as they look forward to the AJC proper which will hold in Kenya from the first week of March, 2014.
“I was really impressed with how my players played this year. They dominated the events totally and I can assure you that it has been a very fruitful tournament for us.
“However, we shall not let down our guard when the second leg commences later Thursday because we are focused on playing in Kenya in March,” Ubale said.
—Damilare Okunola/Abuja