Ugochukwu Iwuchukwu
Team Nigeria made sure they held strong to emerge champions of the Team event finals with a 2-3 sweet victory over a resilient Mauritius.
With the two teams tied at 2-2 on major scores, the final team game – the Mixed Doubles sent the Alfred Diette Spiff Civic Centre in raptures as the host country recorded an intensive 19-21, 19-21 triumph to edge Mauritius.
Nigeria’s Anuoluwapo Opeyori paired alongside Dorcas Adesokan in what was an extremely close two sets against Mauritius’ pair of Julien Paul and Kate Foo Kune.
Nigeria and Mauritius beat Ghana and Egypt respectively en-route the finals of this year’s mixed team event at the All Africa Senior Championships.
Team Nigeria started strong with a statement performance in the men’s singles when the country’s number one, Anuolwapo Opeyori showed immense superiority with his 11-21, 16-21 straight set win over Mauritius’ Aatish Lubah.
Africa and Mauritius number one, Kate Foo Kune brought the game back on parity after a smart 21-12, 21-16 display against Deborah Ukeh.
The game was dueced at 1-1 before the men’s doubles of Aatish Lubah/ Julien Paul saw off Clement Krobakpo/Enejo Abah in another straight-set victory to give Mauritius a 2-1 lead.
Deborah Ukeh/ Dorcas Adesokan brought Team Nigeria back on a 2-2 parity when they defeated Aurelie Allet/ Lorna Bodha 8-21, 10-21 in the women’s doubles before a hyper ending to a thrilling decider in the mixed doubles which saw Nigeria edge one of the favourites at the All Africa Senior Championships 2019.
Day 5 continues with the commencement of the Individual events at the Alfred Diette Spiff Civic Centre, Port Harcourt, Rivers State – Nigeria.
