J.E Wilson Badminton ends in Accra … as Ghana settles for bronze medal, with India sweeping awards
GHANA’Smen badminton team clinched a bronze medal in the men’s double at this year’s J.E Wilson Badminton tourney held at the Trust Sports Emporium on Sunday.
It was the only honours attained by the Ghanaian contingent in the four-day competition sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) as part of qualifiers aimed at building points of the participating countries towards the Olympic Games in Tokyo, next year.
After a grueling session of match-ups in five different categories involving 121 players, the men’s single final produced Kiran George from India as the winner. He was followed by Azeibeijan’s Ade Resky Dwi Cahyo and Vietnamese Tien Minh Nguyen respectively in second and third positions respectively.
In the women’s single final, Nu Thing Thi from Vietnam won gold; India’s Magdha Aggrey followed closely clinching silver, whilst Shivani Pathi – another Indian, claimed bronze.
The India dominance in the competition continued in the double games as Ramchandan Shlok and Rutapana Panda combined effectively to oust fellow Indians Arjun and Maneesha K for final the mix double honours , whilst Egyptian duo Hatel Elgamel and Dona Hany settled on bronze.
The Indians showed their superiority again when Maneesha K teamed up with Rutapana Panda to win gold in the women’s double final event ahead of Nigerians Dorcas Adesokan and Deborah Ukeh, while the Egyptian pair of Doha Hany and Hadia Hosny finished in third place.
In the men’s double final, Indian partners Arjun and Ramchandan Shlok produced an excellent game to topple Nigerian pair Godwin Olufua and Juwon Opegori whilst Ghana’s Michael Opoku Boah and Daniel earned the hosts a medal by placing third.
Speaking at the closing ceremony on Sunday, President of the Ghana Badminton Association (GBA), Evans Yeboah, expressed his satisfaction at the level of competition and a successful hosting of the international tournament.
He intimated that part of their strategy to increase awareness around the sport was to host an international competition and that has been achieved to “offer good leverage for the sportas well as bringsuch an international tournament close to the audience.”
Mr Yeboah indicated that the games were a clear indication there was lot of work to be done with the technical team promising that they will immediately get to work on it.
He praised the Ghana team for clinching a bronze medal, describing the games as a learning curve for the team.
The president disclosed that his outfit would build on the experience to ensure Ghana attain the goal of winning two medals in the mixed team and the men’s double event in the upcoming African Games in Morocco, next month.
It must also be stated that overall attendance at the event was relatively impressive in view of the low attention that badminton enjoys in the country.
BY NANA BENTSI ODURO
