National Squash champion, Abdulrahman Olarenwaju told www.aclsports.com that he was excited winning his first medal in his third appearance in the 2018 National Sports Festival.
Olarenwaju who defeated Wale Amao 2-1 in the final of the men’s Squash category revealed that he lost to Amao in the quarter final stage at the 2012 National Sports Festival in Lagos.
He said, “First and foremost I give glory and adoration to God Almighty because without him I do not think all I have achieved so far will be possible. I feel so excited winning both the singles and team Gold medals at the 19th National Sports Festival in Abuja.
“It is a dream achieved; I have participated in two different National Sports Festivals (2009 Kada Games in Kaduna and 2012 Eko Games in Lagos). My team got to semi finals at the Kada games and due to some anomalies we were deprive of the team medal.
“At the Eko 2012, I lost to the eventual winner of the tournament Wale Amao at the quarter final stage. Since then, my dream has been to be the best in the game I dearly love”.
Olarenwaju said after moving to Lagos in 2015, he trained alongside with best squash players in the country including Babatunde Ajagbe.
He said, “I moved to Lagos in 2015 after my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and since then I have been trying to improve my Squash every blessed day.
“I learnt the basics of Squash in Ilorin (my home town) which needs a lot of energy to exhibit. When I got to Lagos, I had to learn from different people including the likes of Yusuf Durosinlorun who happens to see through the development of my game at certain level.
“I trained with the best player in the country then, Babatunde Ajagbe and he is always ready to give advice on what I need to do to improve my game. All I have to do is adapt to the style of some players who are better than me; I strongly believe that’s the only way to learn, you pick one or two things from every player and join with what is yours”.
The Kwara born player further said, “Moving to Lagos did not really affect my game negatively but positively because you get to play the best players. 80 percent of the best players are based in Lagos. So, if you know what you are doing it does not really take time to improve”.
Olarenwaju said he hopes getting sponsorship in 2019 adding that some individuals have been in major boost in 2018.
He said, “Getting sponsorship has been a great challenge for me because I really wish to play this game to the world level. It has not been easy but Captain Adedayo Awobokun, Femi Adeyemo, Bolaji Akinyemi and Muyiwa of Ivory health club has been a source of help in one way or the other.
“My target for the year 2019 Insha Allah is to play more tournaments outside Nigeria most especially PSA sanctioned tournaments to improve my ranking at the world level, also to continue with good form here in Nigeria. I wish to win more trophies in the years ahead”.
