Nigeria reigned supreme at the Trustco All Africa Squash Team Championships after winning both the men and women’s categories at the Wanderers squash courts.
Nigeria’s men’s team claimed the title on Wednesday after a dominant 3-0 victory against their closest rivals, Zambia.
Faruq Sulaimon gave them a winning start, with a 14-1 victory against Mandla Chilambwe. Sulaimon won the first set 11-8, but when Chilambwe struck back to take the second 11-5, the match was evenly poised.
Sulaimon, however, turned up the pressure, displaying fine athleticism and skill as well as great stamina as he started to wear Chilambwe down with some long rallies.
He took the third set 11-7, and then repelled a strong fightback by Chilambwe to win the fourth set 11-9 to take the match.
Nigeria wrapped up the tie when their top seed and captain Gabriel Olufumilayo beat Kundanji Kalengo of Zambia 14-0. Olufimiulayo received stiff resistance in the first set, before winning it 11-9, but then stepped up a gear to take the next two sets 11-5, 11-5 to complete a comfortable victory.
With that Nigeria won the tie but they completed a 3-0 rout after Oladipupo Ayomide beat Sam Siame in straight sets.
That saw Nigeria finishing the tournament on an unbeaten note after earlier victories against Namibia A and B, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Nigerian captain Olufumilayo said it was a great tournament.
“It’s a privilege to play in the All Africa Championships and to represent Nigeria here in Namibia. I had a tough match against Kundanji – he’s a good player – but we gave the crowd a good match to watch and it was fair play,” he said.
“Winning the All Africa Championships is a stepping stone to the world team championships that are coming up in December, so we hope to do well there,” he added, and praised Namibia on hosting a well-organised tournament.
“Namibia is a very beautiful country, I love the people here, they are very very nice and accommodating, and I like the atmosphere as well,” he said.
Namibia A, meanwhile, beat Uganda, but lost to Zimbabwe, Zambia and Nigeria, while the Namibian B team lost all of its matches. The Namibian A team consisted of Max Endjala, Branjdon Grane and Le-Hugo van Rooyen with Christoff Knoetze the reserve, while the B team consisted of Arno Diekmann, Angelo Titus and Steven Berry, with Michael Truter the reserve.
Nigeria also won the women’s title after beating Namibia and Uganda 3-0. With only three teams competing in the women’s championship, each team played the other twice but the Nigerian team reigned supreme winning all their matches 14-0.
The Nigerian team consisted of Rofiat Abdulazeez, Blessing Isaac, Mosturah Durosinlorum and Khadijat Abdulraheem, while the Namibian team consisted of Adri Lambert, Lientjie Koekemoer, Zante Hansen and Jacky Steenkamp.
The Trustco All Africa Individual Championships, meanwhile, got underway yesterday and will continue today and tomorrow, with the finals scheduled for about 17h00 at the Wanderers courts.
The team and individual championships prizegiving will be held after the finals.
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