A hail of commendations continues trailing the feat of Nigeria’s badminton in qualifying for this year’s rescheduled Olympic Games billed to begin at the end of next month in Tokyo, Japan, megasportsarena.com reports.
The sports scene is still agog with celebrations and felicitations, following the feat achieved for the first time in 12 years, and the president of Nigeria Badminton Federation (NBF), Engineer Francis Orbih is leading the spree.
This follows confirmation from Badminton Confederation Africa (BCA) that Godwin Oloufa, Anuoluwapo Opeyori and Dorcas Adesokan have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics which will be held from 24th July to 2nd August.
The BCA revealed that Oloufa and Opeyori qualified for men’s doubles, while Adesokan will feature in the women’s single, thereby drawing excitement from Orbih and other stakeholders of Nigerian badminton, who are still relishing the historic feat.
Orbih reeled lyrical during a ceremony in Abuja for the presentation of 80 badminton rackets to the NBF by Japan’s ambassador to Nigeria, Matsunaga Kazuyoshi.
While acknowledging that the gesture from Japan was another boost to Nigeria’s hopes of excelling in Tokyo, Orbih expressed appreciation for the support, which he disclosed made him personally impressed and spurred the nation’s players to go for gold at the Olympics.
He concluded by beaming with delight that history has been made for the first time, as Nigeria will be playing in the badminton men’s doubles at the Olympics.
Orbih added: “For us in the BFN it is the best time to partner with Japan, we are dominating the game, we want to learn from them, we want to be able to rise in the game of badminton in the world.
“For us at the federation it is an honor to receive these 80 badminton rackets, which signifies partnership. For the past 12 years, Nigeria has not gone to the Olympics.
“We have not been able to qualify to play badminton. Now we have qualified at the time Japan is dominating the game and at the time they are hosting the Olympics.
