ALL AFRICA GAMES – South Africa and Nigeria share medals

After the gold medal scooped by the Nigerians in the team event of the ongoing All Africa Games badminton event in Maputo, Mozambique, South Africa got their revenge in the individual events, clinching 3 out of the 5 gold medals at stake.

By Raphael Sachetat. Photo: Badmintonphoto (archives)

South Africa and Nigeria will go home with 3 gold medals each for the overall badminton competition. The Nigerians had won the team event but South Africa scooped most medals in the individual contest, whose draws were contested by the Nigerians. The team manager from Nigeria had voiced his concerns over the lack of fairness in the way draws were made earlier in the week.

“Our players were meeting themselves in the last sixteen and the quarter finals which is not supposed to be,” said Assistant Coach of the country’s badminton team, Sulaiman Tajudeen, to Nigeria’s newspaper The Nation. “It is unfortunate. We have four quarters on the chart and we had four entries, so  our four entries were supposed to be on those quarters that is, the top, two middle  the third quarters. But suddenly three of our players were pushed up to pave way for Mauritius players. That is the situation as far as the mixed doubles is concerned.“

In spite of this advantage claimed by the Nigerians, Mauritius did not clinch any gold medal. Instead, Nigeria scooped 2 gold medals. Susan Ede defeated her compatriot Grace Gabriel in straight games in the final of the women’s singles, giving Nigeria a gold and silver. In men’s doubles, the pair of Olaoluwa Fagbemi and Jimka Bulus defeated their South African counterparts Dorian James and Willem Viljoen (photo) in straight games in the final to bag Nigeria’s third gold medal so far in the sport.

On top of this silver medal, South Africa made up for their close loss in the final of the team event with 3 successes this time. Jacob Maliekal struck gold in the men’s singles, and siblings Willem and Annarie Viljoen won the mixed doubles final. Viljoen won her second gold medal of the day in the women’s doubles event with Stacey Doubell.

The full results.…
… were nowhere to be found on the official Website