Chief Francis Orbih, the president of the Badminton Federation of Nigeria, BFN, has expressed his optimism that 2024 will be a better year than 2023 in terms of organization and achievement despite 2023 being a successful year for the sport, platinumnewsng.com is reporting.
The president of the federation who made this statement in an interview with veteran sports journalist Emmanuel Edet Bassey of Raypower FM during Friday morning’s Sports show tagged “Fact file”, spent time outlining the achievements of the federation in 2023 and was certain that 2024 will be better, looking at the plans in motion by the federation.
Chief Orbih started by stating that due to the impact of COVID-19 in 2020, the federation came into full activity in 2023, outlining the success of Anuoluwapo Opeyori at the African senior badminton championship which took place in South Africa earlier in the year in view, where he retained his title as men’s Champion. He stated that more medals would have been won in South Africa, but for visa issues experienced which restricted the federation from going with a full team.
The president highlighted the Para-Badminton All Africa championship which was hosted by Uganda where Nigeria had a clean sweep, topping the overall medals table at the end of the event after winning 8 gold medals, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals.
2023 also witnessed the coming back of the Lagos international badminton championship after 3 years, and yet again Anuoluwapo Opeyori broke ground, setting a new African record in the event.
To climax the achievements in 2023, Mr Orbih spoke extensively about the grassroots programme which was introduced by the Federation, taking the sport to schools. 6 locations which include Ikenne, Nnewi, Zaria, Illorin, Yenegoa and Benin were beneficiaries with at least 20 schools with students and game masters given basic and foundational training in the game. At the end, equipment such as Rackets, Shuttles, nets, etc were donated to all schools in attendance.
According to the president, in the next 3 years, the products of this program will start emerging at the top level of the game in the country.
