By Oluwatobiloba Zeal-Adepetu Kumoye
Africa Youth Scrabble Championship U-19 champion, Prestige Archibong, said he had a high expectation of himself and his teammates during the exhilarating event in Kenya.
Prestige Archibong gave in an interview with your FIRST ZEALMEDIACAST BLOG said his sights are not set on the World Scrabble Championships.
“We’re very happy we won in Kenya, it’s a great win. We play with the senior team, we train with them, so I did not expect anything less from Team Nigeria at the championship, the team was a great team, our team was flawless,” he stressed.
Archibong, further explained that he is hungry for more victory, and this burning desire, he will transfer to the upcoming World Youth Championship.
“The World Youth Championship in Malaysia is coming up, scrabblers around the world should watch out for us,” he said.
In Kenya Archibong’s goal of a flawless and seamless outing took a major hit as official at the failed to officiate fairly, pairing Archibong against his 4 teammates in a field of 54 other players, about ten times, twice, back-to-back, against his most feared youth scrabbler, tournament number three seed, Abdulqudus Aliu.
This, Archibong said made the event, challenging, for him and for his few teammates, but not strong enough to deter them, as they occupied the top four spots.
“The tournament was not an easy one, it was a very tough tournament, the whole tournament was against Nigerians. The toughest player for me was Abdulqudus Aliu, who beat me twice at the start of the tournament, back to back,” he emphasized.
Under the captaincy of Sufyan Olojoku, Team Nigeria also won the U-15 category, as Sophie Ekeruche went unbeaten, winning 18 games with a massive cumulative points of plus 3871 while Hassan Olojoku came third with 13 victories and 1387 points, behind Kenya’s Kingsley Odhiambo who finished second with 14 wins and plus 583 points.
Eliana Igbe another Nigerian finished among the top 10. Her 12 wins from 18 games with cumulative points of plus 1406 leaves the promising wordsmith in the 6th spot overall behind Kenya’s Adrian Ngache.
The team crown in the U-15 event went to Kenya ahead of Nigeria and Ghana.
In the U-19 category, Nigeria’s Prestige Archibong who won the U-15 category two years ago in Lagos edged another member of Team Nigeria Abdulqudus Aliu to win the title with higher cumulative points of plus 2794 against 2568 points. Both players had the same number of wins – 18, from 24 games.
Team captain Sufyan Olojoku was a win shy of Archibong and Aliu just like Joy Nwabuzor and Olive Alila but Sufyan Olojoku finished on the podium because of a better cumulative point.
Nigeria won the team title in the U-19 event ahead of Ghana and Kenya and also took the best country prize.
It’s noteworthy to state that besides Uganda that share border with host Kenya, Ghana had the largest contingent.
