Winners emerge at Ayodeji Adekunle squash championships

 

Winners have emerged at the second edition of the Ayodeji Adekunle South-West invitational U- 13 and U- 16 boys and girls served-off from Dec which served-off  from Dec.14 to Dec. 16 at the Ibadan Recreation Club Oyo State.

The Ayodeji Adetunji Adekunle Foundation, have consistently promoted squash's development most especially at the grassroots level, the maiden edition of the Prof. Ayodeji Adekunle championships.

No fewer than 40 players from across the South-West participated in the tournament, six players represented from Lagos State, five players from Ondo State, four players each from Osun and Ogun. The host state Oyo had seven players Headwaters Squash Academy had five, Mena Sports Academy had four while Yellowdot had five representative at the championships.

 Ayo Adekunle, the founder of the foundation,  described the quality of the skills of the young players displayed at the the tournament as promising. He  said that the tournament was geared towards developing upcoming players at the grassroots.

"I'm really impressed and satisfied with the skills displayed here today, this shows that there's something promising about these players. They have proven themselves.

"We intend to continue to sustain this. This year's edition is better so by God's grace next year's edition will be bigger and better. The result of the seed we're sowing now will bare good fruits in the near future," he said.

In the U -13 girls category, Elizabeth Adebayo of Ogun defeated Bibiana Iyelih-Omoefe of Mena Sports Academy Club 3-0, Peter Adeleke of Ogun gave a good account of himself defeating Daniel Awe of Oyo State 3-2.

Similarly, Seun Peters, the Tournament Director  of the competition, said the level of competitiveness  and display of skills among the budding talents was very high and encouraging.

“The playing skills of this  players was impressive, the semi-finals was intriguing. were very tough and encouraging.

“Normally in most junior tournaments, tough games start from Round-of-16 or mostly quarterfinals. However, the toughness of the matches started from the first round, which made some matches appear as ‘final-before-final.

“There were a lot of close point-winning moments, especially in the boys’ category. So the level of competitiveness was very high," he said.

In the U-16 girls category Zainab Ishola of Lagos State defeated Mariam Taofeek of Ondo State 3-0. while Joshua Daniel of Lagos State won his match 3-1 against Benjamin Monday of  Headwaters Squash Academy 3-1.