The President of Badminton Federation of Nigeria, Francis Orbih says three players are on the verge of qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in Japan.
Orbih told www.aclsports.com that the qualification of any player in badminton is determined by the ranking of the player.
He said the players will have to attend various international championships before till next April before the qualification period ends.
The Lagos based administrator said, “Right now, we have three players who are on the verge of qualification; Anuoluwa Opeyori, Godwin Olofua and Dorcas Adesokan. The three of them are in good positions to be in Tokyo and what will finally seal it for them will be a function of the number of championships they are able to attend.
“Olympic qualification for badminton is by ranking; your world ranking at the end of the qualification period is what determines whether you are going to play in the Olympics or not. If it were to end today, the three players are in a good position to qualify but from now to April 2020 is still a very long time and a lot of championship will take place”.
“The team is leaving for Turkey and from Turkey to Denmark, Estonia and Sweden. The team will return to the country and prepare for the All African Seniors in Egypt next February to defend our title and it is an Olympic qualifier also.
“We have Uganda Kenya and quite a number of championships lined up till April when the qualification period ends and we have to keep the players busy”, he noted.
Orbih stated that the federation plans embarking on grassroots program in 2020.
He said, “We have maintained the numbers of national championships that we had since inception. We are hoping that those numbers should be increased because the more tournaments we have for the players the better engaged they are.
“We are hoping that in 2020 the numbers of national championships will increase especially the age grade; that is an area we have not been able to stamp our authority and we want to go to the U15 and U19”.
