A total of N7million will be up for grabs as the maiden edition of the Rivers Governor’s National Badminton Championship is set to commence on Wednesday at the Alfred Diete Spiff Civic Centre, Port Harcourt.
President of the Badminton Federation of Nigeria, Francis Orbih said the aim of the competition is to test run facilities and prepare the players ahead of the 2019 All African Seniors Badminton Championship taking place next year in Port Harcourt.
Orbih also stated why they decided to bid for the African Championship when his board resumed office.
The NBF boss made this known during a press conference at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Press Centre, Port Harcourt on Tuesday.
“This is the first Rivers Governor Badminton Championship and history is about to be made.”
He continued,” we came on board and realised that the last time Nigeria hosted that flagship event was the year 2000 in Bauchi that’s 18 years ago since Nigeria last hosted.
“Early this year the Badminton Federation of Nigeria decided to go and bid for the All African Seniors Badminton Championship. So we decided to get bold about it and went on to bid with the support of Rivers State Government we were able to win the bid and now we will be hosting the All African Seniors Championship in April 2019,” Orbih said.
About 144 athletes from 24 States will compete in 5 categories namely: Men’s singles, Women’s singles, Men and Women’s doubles as well as Mixed doubles in the 4-day event.
