20 players to represent Nigeria at African Youth Scrabble Championship in Kenya
Twenty players are expected to represent Nigeria at the second edition of the African Youth Scrabble Championship (AYSC), to be hosted by Kenya next year.
This was disclosed Friday by the Head Coach of Team Nigeria Scrabble youth category, Samuel Eromosele.
Eromosele said there will be no qualifier for the AYSC but the team will be selected from the sixty players under his watch.
“We opened our virtual camp on Wednesday 2nd October 2024 with ten players in camp, thereafter the camp eventually rose 60 players. The camp will be dispersed on Saturday the 21st of December to reconvene on Monday 6th January 2025 and will last for seven months.”
“We are going to Nairobi the Kenyan capital to defend all the titles we won on home soil in 2023. Then it was just Nigeria and four other countries but Kenya is likely to be bigger and tougher, so we must be proactive and get our team together,” coach Samuel Eromosele who is also the National Youth Scrabble coordinator stated.
Meanwhile, Captain of Team Nigeria to the World Youth Scrabble Championship 2024, Sufyan Boluwatife has been named as captain for Team Nigeria to the African Youth Scrabble Championship. He will be assisted by Michael Ogbonna and Hauwa Abdullahi.
Meanwhile, Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF), has made arrangements for Invitation letters from PANASA to be issued to the players on the 10th of January with supporting documents from both the Nigeria Scrabble Federation and the Kenyan Scrabble Federation.
In a related development, sports stakeholders have appealed to the Federal Government through the National Sports Commission (NSC), to back Scrabble Youth Team Nigeria to the African Youth Championship financially.
It’s on record that the former Sports Ministry never paid attention to the growth of scrabble at youth level. It failed to foot the team’s bill to the maiden edition of the African Youth Scrabble Championship in Lagos as well as the World Youth Scrabble Championship in Sri Lanka, citing lack of funds.
2025 is loaded to the hilt with six major competitions which Team Nigeria has the obligation to attend, they are; World Youth Scrabble Championship in Australia, African Youth Scrabble Championship in Nairobi, Kenya and PANASA President Cup, West African Scrabble Championship.
Others are ; MGI World Team Championship in Accra, Ghana and World English Scrabble Players Association Championship in Accra, Ghana
Newstap Communications understand that some State Government through their different Sports Commissions and Sports Ministries are willing and ready to support the Youth Team.
Two Nigerians, David Ojih and Prestige Archibong, emerged as champions in the U-19 and U-15 categories, at the first African Youth Scrabble Championship.
David, emerged victorious with 19 wins to secured the U-19 championship title after four days of intense mind games encompassing 24 rounds of games.
Another member of Team Nigeria, Joy Ola came second. Lateef Musa, also from Nigeria, secured the third position with 17 victories and a cumulative score of plus 1012.
In the U-15 category, Prestige Archibong claimed the top honour by winning 16 games and achieving a cumulative score spread of plus 2614. Abdulqudus Aliu secured the second position with 13 wins and a cumulative score spread of plus 1358. Clinton Imode finished third among the 88 participants from five countries.
The winners were awarded a total of $9,000 in prize money, alongside valuable gifts including laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
It’s noteworthy to mention that Joy Ola later represented Nigeria at the 13th African Games, where she won gold in the team event while David Ojih finished 6th at the African Scrabble Championship in Kigali, Rwanda.
