Vietnam’s Tien Nguyen has dethroned three-time champion of the Lagos International Badminton Classics Misha Zilberman of Israel on Saturday at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos.
36 year old Nguyen emerged winner after beating the Israeli in two straight sets ( 21-8, 25-23) to end his reign as champion of the Lagos Badminton Classics.
Vietnamese made Zilberman work for every shot as he was forced to make some errors which worked in Nguyen’s favour.
After the game, Nguyen revealed his experience gave him the edge over 30 year old Zilberman.
“My experience gave me the advantage and I am much more experienced than him.”
“I feel great and happy because I made up for my semi final loss in the Badminton Championship in Ghana last week. But after the first and second round here in Lagos I got confident.”
In the women’s singles, Neslihan Yigit of Turkey defeated her compatriot Ozge Bayrak in three sets (21-16, 24-26, 21-13) to emerge champion on her second final appearance at the Lagos Badminton Classics.
Yigit said, “I am happy to win today’s final. It was good and an interesting match having to play my friend and team mate in the final. It was an all Turkish final today I am happy the way it turned out.”
The GerJones Ralfy Jansen and Peter Kaesbauer of Germany beat Indian pair M.R Arjun and Ramchrandran Shlok 2-0 (21-11, 21-8) to win the Men’s doubles of the Lagos Badminton Classics. While Pooja Dandy and Sanjana Santosh (India) combined to beat Turkey duo Bengisu Ercetin and Nazican Inci in three sets, 21-18, 8-21, 21-14 in the Women’s Doubles final.
M.R Arjun and K.Maneesha won the all Indian mixed doubles final. Arjun and Maneesha defeated Ramchrandran Shlok and Rutaparna Panda in two straight sets (21-16, 21-17) to win the mixed doubles event.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s best finish at the 5th edition of the Lagos International Badminton Classics was a Bronze medal win in the Men’s Doubles event.
Africa number one, Anu Opeyori and his doubles partner Godwin Olofua were awarded the Bronze medal. They lost 21-17, 21-17 in the semis to the eventual champions of the Men’s Doubles.
