Champions Emerge At Alake 20th Coronation Anniversary South West Junior U16, U19 Squash Championship
ABEOKUTA- The trio of Ogun State’s Elizabeth Adebayo, Ayomide Omotayo and Awawu Balogun have emerged victorious of U16 Boys and Girls and U19 girls finals of the Southwest Squash Championship held in Abeokuta to commemorate the 20years on throne of the Alake and Paramount Ruler of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo.
The championship, which draws 50 players from the six Southwest states, began on Friday, with the finals held on Saturday at the Squash court domiciled inside the Ake palace ground.
In the girls’ U16 final played on Saturday, Elizabeth Adebayo dislodged her Lagos counter, Chioma Ude 3-2 in a five set of 11-7, 11-6, 11-6, 11-5, 11-6.
Elizabeth had beaten another Ogun player in the semi-final earlier played, Deborah Idowu 11-7, 11-7 in a straight two set before beating her Lagos counterpart in the final.
In the U16 Boys final, Ayomide Omotayo beat Peter Adeleke in all Ogun Boys’ final winning 11-5, 11-8, 11-7 in three straight set.
Awawu Balogun of Ogun State triumphed over Chioma Ude of Lagos in the U19 girls’ final.
Speaking on the importance of the championship, the sponsor, Chief Tokunbo Omisore, described the competition as his humble contribution to the 20th coronation of Alake and growth of sports in Egbaland, Ogun State and Nigeria at large
He added that the major objective of the championship was to discover and nurture future stars from Egbaland to represent Ogun and the country
Omisore, an Egba chief in an interview with Sports Writers later challenged other chiefs in Egbaland to also use sports and vocational skills acquisition programmes to harness huge potential of youths to enable them contribute positively to the economic growth of the ancient kingdom
Similarly, President of Royalty Club of Egbaland, Tunde Aregbesola, explained that the club decided to organize the squash competition to mark the coronation anniversary because of the love of the paramount ruler for the game
The club, according to him, has been organizing the competition, which has continued to produce great players who have been representing both Ogun and the country for the past one decade
He was full of appreciation for Chief Omisore for bankrolling the competition, assuring that the club would continue to sustain the rich tradition of discovering and nurturing great talents in the game of squash
