Team Nigeria has continued to show its dominance in the game of Scrabble in the continent with another five star performance at the African Youth Scrabble Championship held in Kenya.
Nigeria made a bold statement by picking top honours at the prestigious Pan African Youth Scrabble Championships which ended on Sunday.
Sufyan Olojoku led Team Nigeria won the U-19 and U-15 individual and team titles.
In the U-15 category, Sophia 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.
Ghana’s Michael Somuah narrowly missed out on a podium finish due to lower cumulative points than Hassan Olojoku. Both players recorded 13 wins but Somuah’s 796 points were off the mark.
Eliana Igbe another Nigerian finished among the top 10, with 12 wins from 18 games with cumulative points of plus 1406,which left the promising teenager in the 6th spot overall behind Kenya’s Adrian Ngache.
The team crown in the U-15 event went to Nigeria ahead of Kenya and Ghana.
Michael Somuah, Beatrice Omidiji, Appiah-Branor Karankye, Isaac Cudjue and Etoinam Nador put up a fight to finish among the top three in the team event as they all had double digits wins and triple digits cumulative points.
In the U-19 category, Nigeria’s Prestige Archibong who won the U-15 category two years ago in Lagos egded 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.
Ghana’s Delali Aquila and Kenya’s quartet of Israel Otieno, Jerem Kipchumba, Samson Karani and Emmanuel Wandera completed the top 10 line up in the U-19 category.
Nigeria won the team title ahead of Ghana and Kenya.
Besides Uganda that shares border with host Kenya, Ghana had the largest contingent.
Meanwhile, victorious members of Team Nigeria to the Pan African Youth Scrabble Championships are due in Lagos on Monday by 5pm.
By Maxwell Kumoye