Eighteen countries will take part in the All Africa Senior Championships which will come up from April 26 to 28 at the Alfred Diete Spiff Civic Centre, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

The Championships is made up of two separate tournaments: the Mixed Team Event holding from April 22 to 25 and the Individual Championship which will hold from the April 26 to 28.

The 18 countries that have registered for the showpiece event include Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Congo, Congo DRC, Eritrea, Egypt Ghana and Ivory Coast. Other participating countries include; Kenya, Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the host country, Nigeria.

The Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN) has commended registered teams and promised to stage the best All Africa Senior Championships the continent has ever seen. The BFN President, Francis Orbih promised that the country will be ready to host Africa.

Orbih stated, “As part of the preparations for this competition, the BFN organized the 1st Rivers Governor’s National Badminton Championship in Port-Harcourt in December 2018. The National Championship provided us with an opportunity to test-run the facilities and infrastructure needed to host the All African Championship.

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“We learnt a lot of lessons from the National Championship, which have proved very useful in our current preparations. The Rivers State Government has been very supportive in our preparations and with their continued support, we will be ready.”

Rivers State for Sports, Boma Iyaye noted that the expected level of participation shows that Rivers State is still one of the most important destinations for sports tourism in Nigeria. “With the kind of infrastructure investments made by Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, we are not surprised to see the quality of countries interested in coming to the state to take part in the Championships.

“Rivers State is ready and we are sure this will be the best All Africa Senior Badminton Championships ever. This is the promise of the Rivers State Government to Africa and we are committed to keeping this promise,” he added.