Day 1 of the All Africa Senior Championships started with a bang, with 9 countries participating in matches from Group A, B, and C.
Opening the Games, the President of BCA, Mr. Michel Bau said,
“In March 2020, the world stopped, and our sport suffered. We were unable to host any activities for several months while we were all busy surviving. Almost all of us lost someone close, either a family member, a friend, a neighbour, or a colleague. After the storm and the “waves”, we remained afloat and strong waiting for the right time to get back in action. Now, with the effort and courage of each and every one of us, we are back with our activities including our most prestigious event, the African Senior Championships.
This is the 5th tournament this year for Africa, being held in a bubble due to the pandemic that has ravaged the world.
“Our strategy has been and will always remain centered on the players. Much has been done in this aspect including the recent introduction of an elected BCA Athletes Commission. We have also made a lot of effort in planning, presenting, and delivering world-class events for our players. In 2020, we introduced live streaming to showcase our tournaments and players to the world. With these innovations and our continued development programs, we hope to make our players compete with the best in the world. He added.
Uganda was gracious enough to host this tournament after it was postponed from February to October. Welcoming the teams to Uganda the President of the Uganda Badminton Association Madam Annette Nakamia said:
“Tournament organization during this era of COVID-19 pandemic is a challenge that we knowingly undertook and all of us here have to follow the SOPs, I trust we will safely and successfully manage this tournament. We are stronger together.”
In Group A matches, Reunion was no match to the defending Champions Algeria, they lost 5-0 but their singles player Loic Bertil { @loic.bertil} and doubles player Assing Aaron{ @Aaron ASSING} gave a very good account of themselves in all their matches. Things still didn’t go the Reunion way in their second match against Zambia losing again 5-0. Tomorrow Zambia will face Algeria to determine who tops group A.
In Group B matches Second Seed Mauritius overcame Botswana 5-0 The young talented team of Botswana will be looking to cause an upset in their match against South Africa to keep them in contention of qualifying for the knock out stage. South Africa will have a tough match against Mauritius to decide who will top Group B.
In Group C Top, ranked Egypt had an easy day in office after Ghana didn’t show up for their match. They will face off with Uganda tomorrow to decide who tops Group C.
