23rd January, 2014
Top players from the United States, England, Ghana, Scotland, Kenya, Ethiopia and hosts Nigeria will clash at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos at the Lagos International Scrabble Classics which begins today.
With the star prize of N1.2m ($8,000) and overall N4.8m at stake in the tournament, Sir Molade Okoya Thomas Sports Hall of the stadium will be agog with world scrabble players fighting for honours in the four days competition.
Top players expected at the tourney include Nigeria-born United States’ Sammy Okosagah, a two-time winner of the Akpabio tournament as well as Nigeria-born Scotland-based Lukmon Owolabi.
Technical Director of the Nigeria Scrabble Federation, Victor Owokere disclosed that Nigeria’s national scrabble team will use the competition as a prelude to their preparation for the 2014 African Elite Scrabble Championship.
Owokere noted that the federation will also use the tournament to scout for more talents so that Nigeria can have a pool of talented players for future international competitions.
“Most of the invited countries are coming with their best players and we expect to see the best players in the world converge together for the competition”
“Nigeria will not present a team, players are going to come out from their club levels and from there represent at the national and we are also expecting players from the UK, Canada, US and Kenya to participate at the tourney,” he said.
—Taiwo Adelu