AFRICA CHAMPS 2011 – Another two Gold for RSA Veteran Edwards

After scooping the gold medal in the team event, Michelle Edwards from South Africa scooped another two gold medals in the African Individual Badminton Championships yesterday in Marrakech, Morocco. The 36-year-old shuttler still leads the pace in Africa.

Raphael Sachetat. Photos : Right Reserved.

5 out of 6. That’s how many gold medals the South Africans took back with them after the two events held in Morocco for the past week – the team and individual events of the African Badminton Championships.

Michelle Edwards, in particular, will go home with 3 gold medals after this event. One of these came in the team competition, when she helped her country beat Nigeria 3-2 in a breathtaking final, but then again, a few days later, in the individual event, Michelle won in both mixed and women’s doubles, in straight games for both events.  It was a delight for the South African veteran, who can’t even recall the number of her so many titles in this competition, yet 2011 is a special year with 3 golds at once:

“For the number of titles I’ve won in this competition, I’m unsure, but it was a fantastic win for South Africa over Nigeria in the team event, coming back from 2-1 to win 3-2 makes the victory even sweeter. But adding this ladies’ doubles gold to my other African titles- is just as good as winning my first Africa champs title,” Edwards told Badzine.

The only non South African gold medallist is Jinkan Ifraimu (photo) from Nigeria, who beat in the final of the men’s singles his compatriot Ola Fagbemi in the closest contest of the day in Marrakech, 16-21, 21-19, 21-18.

Final Individual Results

MS: IFRAIMU (NGR) / FAGBEMI (NGR)  16-21, 21-19, 21-18
WS: DOUBELL (RSA) / HARRINGTON (RSA)  21-18, 21-16
MD: VILJOEN-JAMES (RSA) / IFRAIMU-FAGBEMI (NGR)  21-18, 21-14
WD: EDWARDS-VILJOEN (RSA) / BRAIMAH-IDEH (NGR)  21-9, 21-16
XD: JAMES-EDWARDS (RSA) / VILJOEN-VIJOEN (RSA)  21-14, 21-12