The day two of the ongoing Lagos international Badminton Classics has seen the highest amount of upsets thus far in the four day championship which commenced on Wednesday, the 26th of July at the Molade Okoya indoor sport Hall, Teslim Balogun stadium, Surulere.

Following day one’s qualifiers which saw one of Lagos top seed Godwin Olofua knocked out by Isaac Minaphee of Taraba; Enejo Abah of Nigeria was put through his paces as he bowed out of the tournament in today’s round of thirty two (32) to Ahmed Salah of Egypt, 21-11, 21-16—two straight sets.

Number one seed in the men’s category, Israeli’s Misha Zilberman, made a rather easy progress over Herbert Ebayo of Uganda in two straight sets and further, beat Ghanaian’s Michael Opoku Baah to progress to the quarter finals in the men’s singles.

While Femi Bioku of the Lagos contingent ended his campaign in the hands of second seed, Maddaloni of Italy, current Ivory Coast champion, Anuoluwapo Opeyori looks to be the only light for the hosting State after making his way to this year’s quarter final rounds following his triumphant displays over Olamide Adebayo and Habeeb Bello in the round of 32’s and 16’s respectively.

The day’s highest number of upsets came from the women category as the championship’s number one seeded female player, Hadia Hosny of Egypt was dumped out by unseeded Vrushali Gummadi of India in a tight three set encounter—15-21, 21-9, 21-13.

For total casualties in the female category, the day two set of matches saw four major upsets from top seeds in the category; the likes of second seeded Menna Eltanany of Egypt, Grace Gabriel of Nigeria who is fifth seed, third seeded Egyptian, Doha Hany and Hadia Hosny also of Egypt who is the highest ranked female player in the championship.

There were also plenty of excitement to savour in the men doubles, women doubles and mixed doubles categories respectively with the Nigerian looking to salvage what is potentially, left on the medal stand.

Writer: Chidiebere Anugwolu